Odd is it that I should think of clothing while looking at such horrific pictures.
What ragged soul bore the tattered shirt I wear? What insistent thrashing from the fuming globe did the arms in these ragged sleeves undergo? Of their troubles... might I know?
A second hand story, a second hand building, second hand smoke curling allegiance to breath, second hand food, second hand clothing. ...Death.
Every piece of clothing I own has a hole in it somewhere, a tear, a stubborn thread, shrunken look, sedated color, a missing button, a snag, a raging crinkle, or furled collar, not unlike my heart over the genocide of a people.
1. U.N. halts Gaza aid deliveries, blames Israel
2. The Green Prophet
3. U.N. Suspends Gaza Aid Operations
4. The Daily Banter
What ragged soul bore the tattered shirt I wear? What insistent thrashing from the fuming globe did the arms in these ragged sleeves undergo? Of their troubles... might I know?
A second hand story, a second hand building, second hand smoke curling allegiance to breath, second hand food, second hand clothing. ...Death.
Every piece of clothing I own has a hole in it somewhere, a tear, a stubborn thread, shrunken look, sedated color, a missing button, a snag, a raging crinkle, or furled collar, not unlike my heart over the genocide of a people.
© 2008 mrp/thepoetryman
1. U.N. halts Gaza aid deliveries, blames Israel
2. The Green Prophet
3. U.N. Suspends Gaza Aid Operations
4. The Daily Banter
This was so moving to me I've spent the past hour crying. Not a bad thing. Tears of sorrow and compassion. Tears of gratitude that you are looking at the victims as the victims that they are.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Utah. I appreciate your visits and your tears.
ReplyDeletePeace...
Utah Savage and thepoetryman: you're both so brave. I look when I can. And weep when I can. But then I become almost paralyzed with grief.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of clothing is the perfect poetic leap here: Think of T-shirts and we can't look at this as just more wreckage; rather, those victims are inescapably each of us. And that's the very truth I subconsciously shy from, because it's so horrible.
kathleen,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I can't speak for Utah, but I find it is my muse that is much braver than I. I am a babbling rage when I think of these things, let alone see them. It's as if my muse hides the true nature of the picture until I can flesh it out and come to terms with it. If it weren't for her my attempts would be futile.
I, she... felt the clothes made a larger point. A human point. A humanly horrible point.
Am at a loss for words - your words so moving. It helps me get past the anger, which is considerable. Thank you for this, and for your poetry, which I just now discovered. It is true that your muse can bring connections nothing else could bring.
ReplyDelete