It seems completely futile to write yet another poem in response to the endless wars that humanity is incapable of preventing. And yet, here I go again: words ‘need’ to be written down on paper, perhaps as a personal attempt to process my emotional response to the tragic news that arrives daily.
Ironically, (or perhaps not so at all), whilst looking online at photos of the current war in Gaza, I discovered the following headlines from 2014:
Gaza conflict: Obama concerned as Palestinian death toll hits 583 (Ya Libnan, July 22, 2014)
Gaza crisis: Israel kills three top Hamas commanders (BBC news, August 21, 2014)
Will this conflict continue for as long as humanity does?
The poem was inspired not by the photo shown here, but by a recent BBC news item.
My poem could refer to any war at any time: Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam….
Hearts of stone?
That father, weeping and wailing,
holding in his arms the corpse
of his four year old son in its blood-soaked shroud.
As if that may not be enough to turn hearts of stone
to ceaseless tears,
he is brought another blood-stained bundle:
his six year old daughter, dead, dead, dead, dead, dead,
dead.
A mother buries her face in her hands and sobs,
again.
Again, again, again, again, again.
I find it hard to live in the world
seeing such trauma.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Often, ten eyes for one eye and ten teeth for one tooth.
Somehow the world shuffles on.
Dinner is made and eaten,
music is played, another book is read;
we complain about the weather.
Elsewhere,
somewhere out there,
another day dawns
and horns are locked,
skulls are cracked,
cockfights continue to the death.
A fawn is pulled down by the pack,
a pregnant, young doe is ripped open
before she has even given birth.
© David Urwin November 2023
Top photo credit: Al Arabiya News, 2014 Lower photo credit: Ya Libnan, 2014
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