" The Grounds At Katmandu "

There once stood a pillar of salt in the mines of killer thought
An enormous undertaking, through years of wounded effort wrought
A sanctioned sophisticated, utilitarian point of view
That with some entangled, righteous, praying few
We found the answers on the grounds of Katmandu.....

There were no horsemen, no banners waving, just silent cries
Broken manners of holy Fathers, crumbling walls all through the lives
Where magnificent, mournful, tribal undertakers knew
The truest equations would not remove their hearts so blue
We started singing sonnets on the grounds of Katmandu....

The Gods had begged the learned librarians for some sound advice
And all through the empty pages no one could even hypothesize
About the distant drumming, foreboding sounds, misconstrued
Where teachers lay bleeding, and soldiers slaying God's youth
We started mourning lost children on the grounds at Katmandu....

But in the end, a universal understanding, of festering hates
That forced the elders to put their backs up and negotiate
The world was watching, no time for hiding, time, to go and do
Throw the weapons, into the rivers, and die to prove
That only Love wins, it's universal, on the grounds of Katmandu....

Tony Taylor   (Chicago)