The (Bitter) Sweet Sixteen

If I shut my eyes and learned to breathe in and out my nose instead,
then maybe I could be at ease with all of this,

But even then,
even at ease,
we would not,
could not,
be at peace

They should leave the carpets as is,
leave the holes in this infrastructure in tact,
and then we could,
we should,
raze it to the ground

If I learned to overcome these hiccups,
then maybe I could express how distraught I have been,

But even then,
even in the silence and newfound contentment
there was a discomfort in my comfort

They should make a raucous,
just to scare off the calm before the storm,
the contrary designs of the still life,

And if we held our hands,
and if we washed behind our ears,
perhaps then,
especially then,
we could bypass the eye for an eye,
for the eye to eye