Peace on Earth

In the trenches
Behind the lines
Under the rubble
In the displacement camps
In the situation rooms
Down the corridors of power
Up the chain of command
Along the jetstream
Above the ionosphere
Beneath the magma
Under the oceanic trenches
Along the tectonic fault lines
Over the barrier reefs
Through the salt marshes
Over the plains
Into the wastelands
Into the heartlands
In the hamlets
In the exurbs
Through metropolitan sprawls
Among the shopping throngs
In the boardrooms
In the courtrooms
On the cellblocks
In the interrogation rooms
On the street corners
In the streetcars
At the kitchen tables
Among the library stacks
In the lecture halls
In the union halls
On the factory floors
In the houses of worship
In the bordellos
At the border crossings
Inside the safe houses
Within the crack houses
In the chatrooms
In the classrooms
Among the protests
Around the playgrounds
In the hospital clinics
On the coroners’ tables
Along the maternity wards
Within our convoluted hearts
Is all we ask.






Robbie Gamble (he/him) is the author of A Can of Pinto Beans (Lily Poetry Review Press, 2022). His poems have appeared in the Indianapolis Review, Post Road, RHINO, Salamander, and The Sun. He is the poetry editor for Solstice Literary Magazine, and he divides his time between Boston and Vermont.