Sunday, February 21, 2016

Refuge




taking shelter in Absurdity
knowing nothing wanting to know nothing
unbelieving
allowing the story to be told in gross cartoon
                                (wild harp voices lost in the screeling wind)
criticism hidden behind uncomfortable laughter
at the vagaries of hot air balloons
floating above the idiot parade
cords held by those who write apologia
for the horrors of history

no, they will not hear that wild music
skirling among the forests
wildernesses better to remain unexplored
cut down those trees! for therein dwells nightmare!
denude the land and stop those voices
that will only make you cry and fear
and maybe know the truth
of what's been done in your name  

laugh at the cartoon buffoons!
laugh until the door crashes in in the night!
laugh for that baby face down in the sand
that girl child twisted
broken by the side of the road
abandoned with love
by those who must ever move on
laugh for small bits remotely recognizable
as part of a human who was recently loving and laughing
playing games with his friends
with her friends

laugh at the poignant piles of dirty rags
once someone's mother sister daughter aunt
beloved
never to climb again out of that muck
churned up by thousands upon thousands
resolute feet plodding to who knows where
passing yellow light laughing from windows
the bonds still unbroken
the children allowed to remember they're young

the lights of your lanterns are torture
your torch is no beacon to beckon
no more than a moth to a flame
to self immolation

diving into abyss to escape abbatoir
blind drunk with Freedom from all that held us
honoring Place or Homeland
no room no time to bury the dead

my son ran off to join one of the militias
we didn't ask questions; it's safer not to know
he said he could no longer stay to see life blown apart
and not answer
left his brothers in charge, ages 14 and 10
 children with long guns
in the end not proof against death rained from the sky
not proof against mines underfoot
the treasures of our homeland for centuries
millennia!
smashed to dust

bombs and hammers, insurgents and kings
all sides destroying everything in their path
us
our children
schools homes shops, rubble
and the blood of the dead feeds the soil

i would live there
i Would!

in the shadow of the ruins
near the graves of my parents and those of the children
we had time to bury
and my husband not there
taken away by one of the militias
he never came home

those we could gather
sisters brothers in-laws cousins and their children
anyone left alive
some of the elders stayed
not to slow us down
we gathered our things and began this long walk
past your warm butter yellow lit house
and the unknowing laughter within
the welcome stops at the door

when you teach your children of this holocaust
remember these nameless ones passing your gate
o we have names but you will not know them
they are writ in the stars
and will prick your dreams
never let you forget


though ages pass away 


2 comments:

  1. thank you for sharing this little piece of you

    ReplyDelete
  2. i appreciate yr responses... thank you... sometimes i wonder whether anyone reads and/or likes my work... it's good to hear from you...

    ReplyDelete