round very round and whole
floating on its blue blood are
patches of green and brown
you hear names, Gaza, Palestine,
Iraq, Afghanistan,
Laos, Congo, Sudan, Myanmar,
Somalia
and you see pictures that may
haunt or drown
among many pressing matters of
life, cooking,
eating, shopping, shaving, saving,
gaming, office, school,
at night when you are sleeping
under a thick blanket
and when you startle by a distant
cracker of festival
you go back to sleep relieved,
for a peaceful next day;
morning you call your milkman
when he is late
and life is like a pressing
matter of cooking, eating,
shopping, shaving, saving, gaming,
office, school,
and when you plan a trip, you
never come across
names like, Gaza, Palestine,
Iraq, Afghanistan,
Laos, Congo, Sudan, Myanmar,
Somalia and many
and you never think twice about
gun shattered lives,
empty tummies, dry sleepless
eyes, dried out childhoods
because life is a pressing matter
of cooking, eating,
shopping, shaving, saving, gaming,
office, school,
and you live on illusions, and reality is dug deep under
volcanic, vulnerable tectonic plates...
and you live on illusions, and reality is dug deep under
volcanic, vulnerable tectonic plates...
it can seem so far away...and we seem so distant from the conflict when it I not in our back yard....but what happens when it finally comes to us....
ReplyDeleteyes....that is the grim reality everybody forgets....thank you...
ReplyDeleteAiee! If only, if only we could leave war for what really matters!
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed very easy to get caught in our everyday routine and forget that there is a world outside where people wish our 'troubles' were all they had to worry about. I like the way you used repetition in your poem, Sreeja.
ReplyDeleteI do think as we go about our routines of daily life we don't reflect on the war that is in the daily life of so many in the world. Your poem is a good reminder that we should never forget...
ReplyDeleteThe borders between our life and the hell of war seem to be like the moat around the castle.. but after a while it's more like we are under siege in our protected world of daily life...
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine living in those war torn countries and seeing death and misery up close ~ I think we are very lucky to continue doing our routine in our everyday life ~ Good one Sreeja ~
ReplyDeleteThe horror that so many know as commonplace seems no more than a sound bite to many of us...powerful
ReplyDelete