The Gilding of Peace
A mango-colored road threads
through the quiet bushes
spotting a grassland;
roves along a riverbed
where salt shimmers like dew
freshly-formed all day;
meanders forever toward
the mountain's regal
seat on the horizon.
Of all the animals
in that open space, the sun
finds the peace crane's
crest to gild, as if
its slow-stepping exudes
the world's answers
to all the hardest questions.
I caress a friend's forehead,
soft hair (the color of a third day
snow), and paper-thin skin, too,
dotted with scabbed sores.
His tongue roves uncertain
of what to do, as the nurse
fills his feeding tube.
A salmon-colored cloth winds
around a waist, once
strong and unpierced.
In the end we're all
crying out for what we've
wanted most. A friend's
warm palm pressed browward.
Slow-steps in the sun.
And a gilding of peace.
Sarah E N Kohrs (SENK) is an artist and writer, with more than 125 journal publications in poetry and photography. Her poetry chapbook, Chameleon Sky, was the 2022 Kingdoms in the Wild Chapbook award recipient. She has a teaching license, endorsed in Latin and Visual Arts, and homeschools, and creates with clay in her pottery studio. SENK lives in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, kindling hope amidst asperity. http://senkohrs.com.
“On the Maasai Mara in Kenya, a pair of peace cranes slow-stepped in the tall grass. Sunlight flickered off the grass grains and illuminated the cranes' crest with such grandeur and beauty. I'll never forget that moment and the peace I felt watching the cranes on the plain. It came to mind when I said goodbye to a friend the night before he passed away.”
This poem was first published by Kingdoms in the Wild Press as part of the chapbook Chameleon Sky in February 2023.