In a Far Land

So many women on their knees 
that if I knew how to tell them 
they could find hope here, 
or that there the men 
would be kind and when the sun rose
their hopes could rise with it, 
but especially if they would resolve
to walk away from all 
who once hurt them, to some far land
where they could day by day 
remake their lives 
in the image of their hearts 
I would tell them— 
no, I would walk there with them,
so that in the stillness 
of that hot noon, and later, 
in the blush of dusk, 
I could take their hands 
and never need to whisper peace.