Total
Universal.
Total and Universal
Dis Arm.

Yes.
Not control. Not lower stock piles. Not parity. Not deterrence.
Total and Universal.

No, AK47’s, automatics, unstoppable killers with no time needed to re-load.
No stockpiles.
No cluster bombs.
No money made on making ‘em.
No land mines.
No submarines.
No space killers.
No chemical sprays, bombs, and water poisons.
No germ bombs.
No turning life against other life – all life, children, women, men young and old
anything that happens to be biologically different.
No guns, no tanks, no gunners, no tankers.
No silencers, no searchers in the dark, no sound blasters.
No atomic, nuclear, hydrogen, plutonium, radiation, killer bombs, delivery
systems, missiles, Enola Gays, radar searchers, silencers.
No traders, dealers, hoarders, bankers, schemers on death making.

No more war; screams, suffering, trenches, sirens, amputees, orphan-making,
crazy-making, homeless-making, legless, armless, mindless making
a dead earth
silent trees
exhausted birds
wandering animals
poisoned water.
Total and Universal Disarmament.

Give
the comfort of trees
the song of birds
the safety of love and trust
though naive but real
the security of air, moving cool water, fruit, quiet, stars, grass, flowers, seeds,
Give me butterflies, and buds about to open
and
then
do.
Give me the moon behind the clouds
and
then the kiss of light
when it shines through

Give me the star of hope in the night and the morning.

No more war, not just no more this bomb or no more that bomb.
Total and universal disarmament.

by Regina Birchem, a TMC member and member of the Minnesota Metro Women’s
International League for Peace and Freedom