Editor's Note: We bring our original 2008 publication of Mankh's poem back to celebrate the extraordinary announcement that the Nobel Peace Prize is being given to Barack Obama, even as he bombs innocent civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Any questions you may have ever had about the credibility of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the true value of the prize should now be laid to rest.

- Axis Editorial Group

The Nobel Peace Prize Goes To. . .

a child in Iraq a sparrow in Detroit
a polar bear a wildflower the one cell
in Rove's brain that is peaceful
a chunk of ice floating away from the top
of the world
 
the soldiers who have held their gunfire
the soldiers who have left the war
the soldiers who refused to become soldiers
a sparrow in Afghanistan
 
the Myanmar monks the Australian abos
a Darfur grandmother a Hopi grandfather
a Taoist a true Christian the funniest Jew
you've ever heard
 
the Shakers the Quakers the Pacifists
the half-baked weed smokers
the devotees of Walden Pond
the whirling Dervishes
the drunk in the alley who has only damaged his own knuckles
against the cold brick wall in the heart of winter
 
a fool in a field in the middle of anywhere
who is feeding a sparrow with one hand
and waving a white flag with the other

Mankh (Walter E. Harris III), a poet and essayist, is the author of Singing an Epic of Peace; author/edited Haiku One Breaths; and is currently editing an anthology of essays and poems entitled Modern Muses: How Artists Become Inspired. He can be contacted at mankh@allbook-books.com.

READ MORE POETRY AND ESSAYS BY MANKH