Just a rock
A muddy ochre
Curved
Little rock
It has a million clones
Scattered all around the world
The planets
The universe
 
Just a rock
It seems so insignificant
Lying there on the ground
In the dark brown
Pitted
Earth
Surrounded by the skeletons
Of once lush trees
Of houses
The bodies around it
Are not skeletons yet
 
Just a rock
Covered in the darkness of my shadow
It has survived much
Greater darkness
It has survived the night black bullets
And the death they bring
It has survived the gloom of silent nights
Where the only sounds are a man’s moans
And a woman’s screams
 
Just a rock
That I could slip in my pocket
Keep it safe between layers of blue denim
Stone is blind
Stone can’t feel
Yet I still want to shield it
From any future horrors
This place will create around it
 
Just a rock
That can’t move
Away from the tears splashing down onto it
Everything I’ve seen
Could not reduce me to tears
I’ve seen men get blown away
B y hidden mines
I’ve seen children
Trampled
As mobs
Rush for supplies
I have seen the greed,
The self preservation
The desperation
That is the base of human nature
 
This is
Just a rock
A piece of compressed dirt
Yet it alone
Holds the key to my emotions
Because this rock
Doesn’t just reflect war
It reflects peace
It reflects hope
 
It’s
Just a rock
That could someday
Be skipped across a quiet pond
By a grinning child
That another child
Could retrieve
Maybe this second child
Will be different
Different religion
Race
Culture
And maybe..that’ll be OK
Acceptable
Maybe..their differences won’t matter
Maybe all they’ll see in each other is a playmate
Not an enemy
 
Someday, maybe this rock really will be
Just a rock
Tossed about by two children
Blissfully ignorant of the fact
That
Once upon a time
They would have grown up
Wishing the other was dead
 
Just a rock
A rock that is
Steeped in the taint of war
But still shining 
With the gleam of peace