“All I want is peace” He said Shoulders back Chest out Head on a swivel “You know that feeling you get when you look at the stars And there is no more need to fight” I see the way his eyes scan around us Even the mosquitos could be a threat Never choosing to look for too long No rest “All I want is peace” He said “For my nieces and nephewsAnd my future kids too The peace that my father will never know Foreign to my mother and everyone else back home” When things have felt like war for multiple generations Peace really does seem like the only valid destination “I change the way I talk around you” He said His tone softer Words slower A mechanism of acquiring Jobs, women, a life worth living Modifying, strategizing, unconsciously trying To survive His past, it seems Filled with scenes from a movie Guns, gangs, jail And yet tonight he lays in the park with me Where the mosquitos may actually be his greatest threat And me, I listen I feel a fraction Of the weight of the tightly wound trauma, alive in his bones The heaviness in my chest sensing what he knows “All I want is peace” He said Well if that’s the case, I can’t help but wonder Will this man ever truly feel like home? - written October, 2023