Please forgive me for the focus of today's poem for Memorial Day but I'm thinking today of the little lives lost in an ongoing war.
I try to keep my Poetry Monday topics upbeat, often nonsensical.
But I have been weeping for days.
And this is important.
I try to keep my Poetry Monday topics upbeat, often nonsensical.
But I have been weeping for days.
And this is important.
Did not sacrifice mere beasts,
Children were their chosen prey,
They sacrificed them day by day,
And terror, heartbreak and remorse,
These mattered little in their course,
And hour-by-hour and day-by-day,
The children on their altars lay,
The last view of these innocents?
A statue swirled in foul incense,
The years have passed, but man’s the same,
The altar’s changed, but to our shame
Remains. The idol’s not ‘someone’,
The golden shape there is a gun,
The last thing glimpsed by our small folk?
A gun that’s swirled in foul smoke,
And we have not advanced at all,
Our victims still are precious, small.
If our children’s lives we shirk,
They’re not our focus. Greatest work,
Then woe to all else that we do,
Our civilization’s shattered, too.
Children were their chosen prey,
They sacrificed them day by day,
And terror, heartbreak and remorse,
These mattered little in their course,
And hour-by-hour and day-by-day,
The children on their altars lay,
The last view of these innocents?
A statue swirled in foul incense,
The years have passed, but man’s the same,
The altar’s changed, but to our shame
Remains. The idol’s not ‘someone’,
The golden shape there is a gun,
The last thing glimpsed by our small folk?
A gun that’s swirled in foul smoke,
And we have not advanced at all,
Our victims still are precious, small.
They’re not our focus. Greatest work,
Then woe to all else that we do,
Our civilization’s shattered, too.
 |
| Photo Credit: Karen of bakinginatornado.com |
Cause Mondays do get knocked a lot,
With poetry, we all besought
To try to make the week begin
With gentle thoughts,
Perhaps a grin?
So Karen, Charlotte, Mimi, me
Have crafted poems for you to see.
And now you’ve read what we have wrought…
Did we help?
Or did we not?
With poetry, we all besought
To try to make the week begin
With gentle thoughts,
Perhaps a grin?
So Karen, Charlotte, Mimi, me
Have crafted poems for you to see.
And now you’ve read what we have wrought…
Did we help?
Or did we not?
Next week, I hope you'll join our den,
Cause Yo-yos are our topic then.
Thinking of joining us for Poetry Monday?
We'd love to welcome you!
Topics for the next few weeks (with a huge thank-you to Mimi, who comes up with so many of them!)...
Topics for the next few weeks (with a huge thank-you to Mimi, who comes up with so many of them!)...
Memorial Day (May 30) Today.
Yo-yo (June 6)
Roller Coaster (June 13)
World Refugee Day (June 20)
The Happy Birthday song (June 27)
Independence Day (US) or Sidewalk egg-frying day (July 4)
Loneliness (July 11)
Ice Cream (July 18)
Old Jokes (July 25)
Blessings on Canada for putting up with a neighbor who continue to allow its citizens to slaughter each other. Memorial Day? You don't need a uniform to own an attack rifle. We have lost our minds.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said for such a horrendous experience. I'm so tired of mourning these babies. Nobody needs automatic guns except for soldiers and police officers. I just don't don't understand what it's so hard. Well I can, we have to dismantle the NRA.
ReplyDeleteHeartrendingly true. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks for putting what many of us are feeling into words.
ReplyDeleteWe in America have lost our way. I don't know if we will ever find it. It's going to be a long long road back once we find the way. We have an unsolved murder of a 12 year old girl in our community from April, dead from a stray bullet. I work with someone who lives in the neighborhood where it happened. It's frightening.
ReplyDeletePS.There's nothing to forgive you for.
DeleteIt tears me up, and i am afraid it will not change.
ReplyDelete