}} This Time |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










This Time

this time
the wind
did not whisper
it screamed
through the trees
through the images
fluttering in my
head like a line
of crazed wash.
 
this time
images of
a venom-driven 
zigzagging truck~ 
people falling
like pins
in a bowling alley
sent shock waves
through the
silent blood
flowing in my arteries.
 
this time
the violence
in Istanbul, Baghdad, 
Dhaka, Kashmir,
Nice, Istanbul.
screamed
its way into my head
to rouse
the dead spaces ~
by the impotence
of my ordinary life.
 
this time
i must wreak out
reason
and compassion
from those who
make monsters
out of
common men.
those who kill 
and rape
and burn the skin
of propriety
into stygian ash.
 
this demonic
storm of oil money 
of power 
and religion.
this death
of humanity.
 
this time
the wind
did not whisper.
it swirled
into a typhoon
it swallowed
me whole.
 
July 18, 2016
 
 
 
← Bina Sarkar Ellias