Peace on earth

Steam swirls from your coffee

Cool morn brushes your face

Traffic hums in the distance

And you are reminded now of Pascal.

To sit quietly

In a room

Alone.

Or outside, even better

So the sun can stroke your leg

And brighten your view

Of the elm’s green light-lusting leaf.

To sit quietly

In a room

Alone.

Where the dust floats upwards

A fly busies through

The wattlebird calls

And ridges line the nail of your thumb.

To sit quietly

In a room

Alone.

But sit you cannot

The internal battle rages

Said thumb opposes your fingers

And you are compelled to act.

Your chaotic confusion

Plays out at scale

The global stage

Just a magnified montage of you.

An agent in the world now

Careering ‘long train tracks of stories

Laid down by ancient coders

Stories which no longer serve you.

But a new spectre has arrived

To taunt you and needle

A barrage of constant outrage

In folly ‘twas you the one who brought it

Your hopes of peace

Within and without

Might forever now be dashed

As this cipher will never dare you, human

To sit quietly

In a room

Alone.