“How Can We Make Peace Sexy?”

While viewing the trailer for Denzel Washington’s new summer blockbuster, “2 Guns,” I was empowered to write this poem. Does peace have to be sexy in order to get some attention, or be internationally recognized? Why are violence, guns, and bombs presented as being sexy? If looks are important, then how can me make peace look sexy?

 

 

 

How Can We Make Peace Sexy?

How can we make peace

As sexy as Denzel Washington

Brandishing a gun or a bomb?

 

How can we make peace as

Sexy as Tom Cruise, Will Smith,

Gweneth Paltrow or Angelina Jolie?

 

How can we make peace sexy?

So to it the masses pay attention?

So that to a leader who speaks about peace,

Our children and youth listen?

 

I find it uncomfortably necessary

To make peace as sexy as Halle Berry.

 

How can we make peace sexy enough

To make gun lovers salivate over it

Enough to support an effective

Department Of Peace?

 

How can we make peace sexy:

Like half-dressed car models

Expensive cognac or sleek beer bottles

The new en vogue teenage band

A well-known soap opera star

So that about peace we want to understand?

 

How can we make peace something

that’s constantly in demand?

 

How can we make peace sexy? Sultry?

Hot? Steamy? Dreamy? To die for?

To make people come back for more?

Make it so sexy that no one

will ever remember, or think about, war.

 

How can we make peace sexier

Than a fast red car? So that it is

not considered strange or bizarre?

 

I take a deep breath, then slowly release.

Wondering how do we create a sexy peace.

 

Our schools, our streets, our neighborhoods,

our communities, our cities, our world

Needs peace. Peace.

 

© Christopher D. Sims

April 29, 2013

Photo: Meme of Angelina Jolie without guns comes from Thumbs and Ammo: “Real tough guys don’t need guns, they just need a positive, can-do attitude.”