In Every Country - Bob Engel

[Larry Robinson]

In Every Country

1.
The ocean is broad and changefully constant
A single wind envelopes the globe
In every country where seeds 
fall on fertile ground, they sprout.

Kindness is not portioned nor is
compassion divided

Yet somewhere, not here,
ears strain to hear the 
approaching drone.

2.
In every country where yeast meets
water and flour, it blooms.
For some the bread is rich and plentiful
nutmeats and dried fruit
honey, butter and jam.

Elsewhere, the grain is weak
the dough gray with adulteration
but at each oven
children gather 
bakers' labor.

Wherever there and eyes and mouths and hands –
let there be bread to fill them

3.
Having suffered, who turns to
bring suffering to others?

Having been terrorized, who
chooses to terrorize another?

There is fear in every country
In every country, hope.

In every country mothers cover 
the faces of their babies; fathers figure 
the calculus of protection.
In every country children close their hands around small treasures –
amulets, talismans to guard them from danger.

Every country lives amongst their 
dead, buried beneath them.
In every country tales are told.
What tales will be told of these times
when peril walks in every land?

	- Bob Engel
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