we will step down
when you have lain aside
your armored vests
and shown us you bleed too
we will stay our marching feet
the day you tell us why we all amount
to something less
than cattle you must cull
we put aside our gasoline
and stifle our red embers
at the very moment
that you make one single
barefoot
clear-eyed step
toward us
with your hands over your head
with your helmet on the ground
with a single note of sorrow
in your words
—
© Rebecca Kerr, 2014