Seven Steps to Heaven Haiku

If every bomb 
Appeared in the sky a dove
Shrapnel into rain

If vengeance vanquished 
From the cursed lips of weak men
An idea never taking root

If every tank vanished
If by chance a miracle
Peace reclaims the land

If laughter broke out
Like wars fought with satire’s
Pugilist punning 

What room would there be
For anger what bitter root
Not allowed to stretch

Its tentacles 
Through the hearts of men hardened
By indifference 

What will we bequeath 
Our children if not a world
Evermore human

Copyright © 2024 by Tony Medina. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 19, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“I don’t know why it is, but my mind often thinks in haiku. You know how musicians sometimes swing in 4/4 time? My poet’s mind functions in the American 5/7/5. This was the rhythm that gripped me as my conscious and subconscious were absorbing the atrocities in Israel and Gaza, of late, and considering the twin terrors of vengeance and retribution. I wanted to make sense of the violence and inhumanity unfolding sans the what-about-isms that frequently bound and gag the geopolitical conversation. And Miles Davis’s classic tune ‘Seven Steps to Heaven’ walked in. Oh, if this war-ravaged world could only be so lucky, and we could evolve as a species to create a human harmony—a nirvana never seen.”
—Tony Medina