God, keeper of the atoms and stars,
you made us collaborators in creation,
but we have pilfered the secrets of ordered existence
and justified their immoral use in the name of ‘security’ and ‘peace.’
We could say then that we didn’t know the consequences.
Now we do know, but we are complacent and silent.
Have mercy.
We have abused the glue of the universe.
We have made and stockpiled weapons of mass destruction
instead of saying ‘No’ to their use for evil.
Fear and presumption have driven us
to be ready to annihilate untold lives and
make areas of the earth uninhabitable.
Have mercy.
Open our eyes to see how small and fragile the planet is and
how the destruction of any human being diminishes all.
Heal the wounds opened with the destruction of … [Hiroshima and Nagasaki].
Mend the fabric of the human family.
Will in us never to repeat this evil.
Have mercy.
Originally written for Hiroshima Day Remembrance.
Photo: ‘Casualty of War’, Budapest — photo by Ana Gobledale
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