Rifles for Roses

"The time has come to exchange those rifles for roses." -Betancourt, COLOMBIA

Rifles for roses
a bloom for a gun
safety in something beautiful
violence undone.

Both slender and smart
Powerful in passive care
But only the delicate slip of the rose
Commends a pristine air.

So why did it take this long
to trade violence for art?
As vendors for peace
on the world, a rose, we impart

It buds as it smiles
to an audience of rays
And as it feeds from its creator's tears
Its lover redeems its praise.

Life found itself from hiding
Guided by prisms on the bud
And the absence of a rose's harm
saves a people from cruel blood.

No one can uproot this feeling
the trade from war to love
and mutual respect for human dignity
and for life all else above.