Peace Plan for Afghanistan

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Instead of planes raining random death
beyond family planning and microcredit
the new president's new pentagon
could deploy musicians and artists
organize recitals, jams, and poetry slams
send Clowns without Borders
into the cities and mountains
hand out lutes and fiddles, harps and drums.
Soldiers, fresh from Boot Camp of the Arts,
would distribute cameras and watercolors
to every girl and boy, and to the inhabitants
of each town and village an invitation
to instruct the Army, which will sit cross-legged
mornings in the village square, bathed
in ghazals and ragas, legends and Sufi epics
the folktales of two thousand years
the microtones of daily life, its perfect fourths
shimmering in the silky air.