Why I Haven’t Written In A While
©November 22nd 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
When the sky rains down fire
When children die in faraway Aleppo
Breathing chlorine fumes
In bursting lungs and bursting lives,
When girls are sold into bondage
And have no voice, no tongue
No self to reclaim, no past to turn to,
While grown men break their bodies,
When water protectors are beaten back
For asserting their right to the land
As hoses spray ice-water at them
And the temperature drops below freezing,
When leaders rise to power
On a rising wave of hate and violence
And all words of love and peace
Drown in their wake,
When the earth is raped
And gaping wounds bring forth
Fossil marrow from her heaving bones,
And corporations rejoice, while the poles melt,
How can I speak?
Of what can I sing?
Where shall I turn?
What bell can I ring?
Yet sing I must
And speak I shall
And work I will
Resist I should.
And I’ll seek what beauty
Remains on this jewel-bright
Shadowed, sacred planet
And bring it forth into the light.
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