She told her mother to give |
To Alan Kurdi Of Syrian Birth
I will pick that child up I see him Gifted onto the shore by the wailing sea I see his chubby calves not yet grown into limbs he would have paced the earth with He was rushed upon the shore in nature’s pity Not for the death of this little one But for what was to come The death of one innocent filled headlines And video clicks The death of Alan Kurdi of Kurdish descent of Syrian birth of Human flesh of Universal Soul began our decent Again And yet again The sea is filled with the dying She is buoyant with tears salted by neglect and apathy She is turbulent with the death throng of the dark-skinned and light Grabbing for holds which have abandoned them a solid thing of heart and home They splash a desperate cry for living In the darkness of her bosom In the frothing of her tears They drink all she has to offer They fill themselves toward peace I will raise them out of the water I see them Bodies clothed and bodies naked beautiful black-skinned young men arms stretched toward the familiar sun eyes wide in questioning opened for all to see To witness our indifference We do not know their names These floating islands of hope and desperation These dead young men —-- This Globe Rotates It lives Regardless of our warring Our hate Our fear This globe This floating wonder Tolerates our ignorance Our cruelty Our devastation This globe This sea This desert Speckled with carcasses of gasping human beings Dehydrated Lost Seeking family through the spines of needled terrain The burning hot step and breath The clung-to photo of Mother, Father, Husband, Son, Wife, Daughter. The bodies covered in white in a freezer in Arizona Two Thousand One Hundred And Counting. Tagged Unclaimed Lost. We drown And scorch that which we won’t embrace The bombs fall through clouds Vertically And humans move Horizontally It is a natural response The rebels enter the village And families flee to the forest It is a natural response Alan Kurdi It is a cruelty to say you died for nothing It is an inhuman act to live in a country where 2,100 and more bodies lie in cold-storage amongst an apathetic and ignorant populace For those of us Who see your deaths In video And photos Who are willing to look To see and read and read more and learn And know And know we can not help Know our species has lost its way into the airless cave of fear and saber-rattling We only Can lift you from the shore raise you dripping from the waters bury your fragile bones pray at your shroud-covered bodies And know - and yell - and scream our Witnessing That these human beings have lived On this Rotating Globe Have passed time breathing my same air Have smiled Have cried Have dreamed And have been abandoned Into the sea Into the desert Into the dark cave of fear and apathy As we — those who for now Know no vertical bombs Or rabid rebels Close our safe houses Our borders Close our very essence of heart and life . . . Nature’s pity crashes on our Soul Begging us to alter course To remember our Selves But The sea is dark The desert scorching The Pity needed is in our very Pulsing Blood-filled Heart - - - |