PIECE BY PIECE

 

The men worked from six to six

too tired for politics.  Still

they were flayed with sharp

blades until they were dead.

 

All night inside the camp women

huddle, wait for the screams'

stop, for the children to sleep.

 

The scream climbs inside my ears.

Truly I don't know what to do.

What good would I be there,

another body to count?

 

Instead I find myself

yelling at my lover, that

kind man, and run ashamed

through our dominion of peace.

 

Shame, for shame.

 

The women can not even collect

wood without without.  They no

longer ask what happens.  Now

they must wander further for fuel

 

further into harm’s chance way

without husband, without home.

 

No-one sows the spring

seeds.

              ------------Penn Kemp

 

Sound poet Penn Kemp is widely published in book and cd; see http://www.mytown.ca/pennkemp/.  Penn’s little “poem for peace in two voices” has been translated into 106 languages.  It can be seen and heard on http://mytown.ca/poemforpeace/.

 

 

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content © - Penn Kemp
music: H P Chourasia (Raga - Bageshri) © - Gramophone Company of India
image source -  www.survivorsunited.com/ sudan_photos.html