In just four short lines, the speaker describes a quiet way of resisting violence. Faced with a word "as red as war," a word heated with anger or aggression, the speaker doesn't fire back. They answer with play. The color red does a lot of work here: it suggests blood, danger, and a charged moment that could easily escalate.
The last two lines widen the idea into a choice. "We can act / like puppets," the speaker says, which hints at being pulled along by strings, reacting automatically, caught in cycles of hostility we didn't really choose. The alternative is "to be / content to be," a calm and unforced way of simply existing. The line break after "be" even gives that word a small pause, as if the poem is letting itself breathe.
The mood is gentle, light, and a little wry. Rather than lecturing, the speaker offers nonviolence as a relaxed freedom, not a grim duty.