Stolen

the secret music of the children tears my flesh

spirit journeys of a newer time unknown

in dreams all empty nights long

darkness

without pity

the lost children

the ones whose poetry is untried

 bare limbs torn from mothers

torn from homes and lives

torn from the breasts of those

who only wanted to give them more and better

the abject tortured poems cried in the dark

innocent/not innocent

             Terror

the death of journeys

death of hope

the echoes of the heart

the deepest memories

the never

never

never

our land forgotten

left behind with older dreams

with Nothing but barren fields

empty streets and tumbling cots

wizened shrunken faces

of the ancient ones

sprung from the soil

roots deep in a place called Home

haunted sleepless obscured night skies

stars lost in lowering bleakness

no moon to give us back

the songs we left that place with

and disembodied footfalls

loud voices

words not understood

and then the tearing and the screams

and then the blackness falls all round

the soundless dreams crushed together

with no language

driven

beaten

raped and broken on the lathe of hell

the horror of those moments

when we believed the good

the open loving arms

arms now tearing

demanding

no whispered loving sounds

but taunts and hideous laughter

as force gives up no names

no identities

no longer innocent

nightmares without names or faces

the screams filling all orifices

leaving no room for light

the holes left in bodies

psyches

spirits

deep wells bottomless

in the night of cries and evil almost-whispers

like grinding gears or ripping clothes

deadly whispers calling ugly names

and putting hands where hands should never be

soft untouched skin

deep gravid eyes

wounded with forgetting

wounded with the need for oblivion

what will become of these children

calling out their agonized refrains

in the deepest time of night

where dreams go to die

the promised borning burning

torched by invective

the delicate skin

the trembling flesh

words ripped from center

by naked claws

ever since the mother was torn away

where is the mother, the father

where?

do they not love me ever any more

why don’t they come

where is that lullaby

that song that let me sleep at last

why did they go and leave me here?

with just this crying

endless crying

words are told to me but all is din

discord

voices layered and overlapping

hard hands and harsh impatient touch

names lost

exchanged for numbers

I, in safety

hear

and plead for torture to stop

there is no remedy, no sanctuary

and the poetry of children tears my soul

I am complicit

my age will not forgive me

I am not forgiven

tears fall and mingle

with rivers and lakes of laments

unceasing streams

weeping for what’s been taken

there’s no giving back

it’s gone

fragile lives melt into other lives  

and older times

forgotten times

the young hatched from these caged birds

know no sacred touch

no love

can words half remembered

buried deep within the memories of long ago

when mother held them

her soothing bell-like voice

sang sweet unworded nothings

into tiny shell-like ears

the promises

lost promises given

can forgotten words still heal?

we can only give them poetry

and broken promises

but maybe poetry will be enough

© 2018 pamela twining