Sound Bite
I did not see the moving pictures
I heard there was a video
but I did hear the sound bite
The up stairs studio
was warm
yellow hard wood floor
smells like an old library
quiet, except for the radio
tan walls ,antique standing lamp
old guitars,stacks of note books,and books
microscopes and stones,old bones
paintings gathered round
in a crowd listening
b.b.c. world service
watching me paint
content ,in the slanting evening sunlight
the report was contemporary
live in real time
from a foreign reporter
reported by satellite phone
from inside a burning hospital
in a city of death
in Syria
the hell sounds of mortar rounds
in coming , machine gun fire close
thudding into walls and people
explosions ,fire roar
the mangled cry,wailing screaming fear
the quick unmistakable sound
of children's voices, helpless burning
dying ,right there,strange real
beyond a nightmare
in my lovely studio
left me weeping
I wish I could write one this good, brilliant!!
I commend you for your sensitivity. Much of this sort of thing is lost on most people; war always seems remote. We watch images of it on TV. We get numbed by it or we change the channel or we debate the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the war or we simply accept it. It's gotten to the point where it's even regarded as a cliche. Or wars are rationalized on political grounds or seen as cyclically inevitable as the waxing and waning of the moon. Yet if something hurts you personally or some violence is done unto you, you take swift action and do not glibly rationalize violence. You react in some way. Adam Smith once noted that for all our possible sympathies with our brethren dying violently thousands of miles away, we'll still sleep soundly in our beds (assuming our lives are relatively stress-free). If we break our leg the following day, NOW THAT'S SOMETHING. One wonders whether this kind of egoism can ever really be uprooted. Yet you, David, are perhaps an exception. Thanks for the invitation.
A wonder verse...I too recommend! Dorothy A Poet Who Loves To Sing
a write worth keeping i am recommending
How very sad that we have become desensitised by exposure to too much tragedy. I quote Stalin one mans death is a tragedy a million deaths is a statistic