The whore in Iraq
sweet America used like
a street strumpet, abused
by men who did not love you
used for money
and they put you there
where virtue was a memory
where life was cheapened by lies
and death rained like mother's tears
after smoky bombs
and bullet filled air
and even now
as the years seem like minutes
so the dead are still lost to us
and oil still the price we pay
to the unborn who will freeze in strange heat
sweat in anomalous cold
breathe-in the folly of our age with
bitter tastes, as we fill their world with angers
their eyes with soot and burial ash
when memories like hatching eggs
bring the return of hatred, and
sands give back what we have sown
and time will own us; for the bonds
of truth...are unbreakable.
!0th Anniversary of the Iraq War ... hdm
2 comments:
You've used a powerful metaphor for this war -I would never have guessed the content of the poem after reading the title alone -but you've made it acquire a totally new meaning and coloring, impressive and captivating!
almost every line here is permeated with sorrow-born wisdom of war and pain: 'death rained like mother's tears';
THen, I was stunned by the reminder of
the unborn and 'their world', which we are filling with bitter taste, and angers - that concept alone evokes so many thoughts, that it can be developed in a separate poem...
last but not least, the last stanza contains a profound wisdom that mankind should realize - the sooner, the better - as we sow , so we shall reap , or
'sands give back what we have sown
and time will own us',
and the final line is the climax -or anticlimax of this gem of a poem - the essence of the idea you wanted to convey here:
'the bonds of truth...are unbreakable.'
THank you so much for thought-provoking and deeply touching poetry!
I try to temper what I write in international settings, I have readers in 35 countries...some are theocracies, some limited news exposure. But on must be true to self and I oppose the business of war. Iraq was - one prays- the high water mark of a hostilities initiated at the request and for the benefit of the US war industry, the sinful sums of money earned there are still echoing thru our politics - stopping healthcare, promoting class-ism, and fundamentally undercutting democracy. One must remember, the US grew far beyond the will of its founders. They were like the Greeks of 4th Century Athens-- a pinnacle of Democratic thought- spouting grand words of freedom in a place where 6 of ten people were enslaved... the words came true but by the people the were not intended to lift...such is the will of history, such is the power of Faith...H
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