Bodyworkers Without Borders - Ralph Dranow

[Lawrence Robinson]

Bodyworkers Without Borders

God and Their faithful servant Love
are urgently searching for a way
to unseat the Devil and put love on the throne.
Various ideas are considered and rejected
until Love suggests,
“How about training a top-notch corps of bodyworkers
to offer free massages to everyone?
That way, people will get relaxed and less reactive.
The bodyworkers can focus specifically on the heart area,
so people’s hearts will open.”
“I love it!” God declares.
“Let’s do it!”

Six months later an international group of bodyworkers
is offering free weekly massages
to everyone who wants one.
Hardly anyone turns down this unexpected gift.
Smiles start sliding over previously anxious faces.
Something new and exciting is happening.

Love-ins bloom everywhere,
as people dance in the streets,
hugging and kissing those who look different from them.
Wars run out of fuel,
when soldiers refuse to fight,
bonding over a beer with former adversaries.
Civilians gladly give up their guns,
like torn. worn-out socks.
Workers’ cooperatives, windmills, farmers’ markets mushroom,
and Amazon, Walmart, and Chevron go bankrupt.
Prisons, politicians, and police are swept away
by the incoming tide.
A whole new world is emerging 
from the crumbling ruins of the old,
like a snake sloughing off 
its desiccated skin.

	- Ralph Dranow