Elusive Inner Peace

By: JANA GREENE

The funny thing

about Inner Peace

if you are to have any at all,

is that it arrives only by invitation,

A message on the finest stationary,

gilded with gold leaf,

“Please come visit,” it would say,

Writ in fine calligraphy,

as befits a royal guest.

“And maybe stay a while?”

Perhaps lured by

the gift of mercy.

Inner Peace again shows up

with her bag of magic,

tucking Worry, Anxiety, and

The Sin of Certainly

in for the night.

“Shhhh,” she tells me,

Taking me by the hand.

“Let them be,

they will barge back in

soon enough.“

So my Inner Peace and I

find a carpet of deep, soft grass,

under a nighttime sky,

Surveying the stars

for a while,

We talked about the

catastrophes amid us,

And catastrophes within us.

Then we listed our blessings,

without consideration

of our worldly worries.

Because you see,

worry is loud and rude

and I’m pretty sure

drives a modified trick,

making sure to be heard

from miles away.

Anxiety barges in like

the Kool-Ade man,

crashing through walls,

Sloshing chaos everywhere,

Unrepentant.

But Peace comes in by invitation,

Never rude,

or loud,

or destructive.

And although we all carry

Peace within us,

in order to activate it,

You must invoke it,

and listen to it.

It sometimes needs chocolate,

Or a walk on a beach,

Or a good meditation

(And maybe a good medication?)

Or a long consultation with

your very own heart.