Friday’s News

 

 

I remain untouched by Graff diamonds

and the Jets’ newest lineman,

venture capitalists acting

so nouveau over a bottle

of nerveux wine --

 

It is the crying refugee child in the Zam

Zam camp, the guinea worms inside

his sister’s thighs, and the terror

in his mother’s eyes that

make my news today.

 

Chilly autumn breeze shocks my hair into

ruthless being as I pause at the door

of a house that will no longer be

mine the next time that

child smiles.

 

And I question the arrogance of our choices,

the willful ignorance in our hearts.

I question noise and silence,

everything we say and

write in hiding

today.

 

 

 

 War Mirabilis

 

 

I am not bruised, nor breathless... 

retreating into burning silence,

away from the hounds of greed

and their clock-ticking tongues

 

I am running through slowness ~

 

there is no time for blessing lies

or hiding in embers of romance;

take my hand, the electric grass

under our feet recites prayers...

smoke is devouring the horizon ~

 

the hounds’ eyes infect presence

with aromatic blood, their paws

have torn children’s limbs apart

in the scheme of war mirabilis ...

 

do you know what I mean?

 

I am running back into the noise;

come, shatter all crying mirrors -

I wish to sculpt their shards into

new limbs, new solstice of love

 

the world is convulsing around us...

 

cut off my Riesling hair and braid

it into a hound trap; war mirabilis

is a cruel game when our children

lose limbs to gods of wealth...

 

I do not ask you to love me ~

 

just hold my hand and embrace

the porcupine quills of reality -

my bitter lips long to kiss death

into life, gold into forgiveness,

 

disfigured minds into beauty

 

 

--- Renata Emther

 

Renata Emther was born in Pardubice, Czech Republic.  She graduated from the Charles University in Prague, and worked as a freelance interpreter and translator before moving to the United States.  She traveled extensively around Europe, and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Sao Paulo, Brazil.  Her first collection of poetry “Rimbaud’s Echo” was published in August 2006. She currently lives in Pittsburgh. PA, where she is working on her second collection of poetry and translating Czech poetry into English. 

 

 

<-- PREVIOUS                                NEXT-->

content © - Renata Emther
Music: © - National Anthem Project (Czech Republic) 
image ©DRDC (http://www.darfurcentre.ch/ )