Reflections on June 21, 2025 ... by jeanne rene
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| Julien Bryan/WWII Photographer/invasion of Poland |
A Dead Drop to Hell
Lest we forget.
The sum
of our conceit,
encased in fear, suckled on greed
delivered by decree.
A dead drop to hell.
For the name
of each man, woman, child,
flesh to a cinder
from one flicker
of the flame.
For the beast
who dines
on the maggots.
A dead drop to hell.
For the land left
with no seed.
For the city
erased.
For the sons
and the daughters
left living,
bound by the sins of the fathers
I beg we shamefully bow.
Let us be humbled.
For we have harnessed,
understood
but a blink
of the truth …
And within our arrogance,
in our failure
to embrace a brother,
we package our gifts
for destruction,
attempting to reinvent
His law with a dead drop to hell.
I beseech thee,
Lest we forget,
the price paid
for our vanity.
******** ********
... to see what comes
A child
squats in the ash
listlessly fingering circles
Watching
Balancing on toes
dug into the dust
Circle over circle
Circle over circle
Circle
Over … Over …
Watching
his fathers falter
among the ruins
Beseeching the deaf stones for hope
Balancing on toes …
Circle over circle
She sees
her brothers
drowning in manhood
to devour the fathers’ rage.
Brothers vomiting stones heavenward.
Circle over circle
she watches.
Silence watches.
Watching
the mothers’ shadow
unflinching
cast over her shoulders
dumb to its woe
Balancing on toes
lost in the dust …
And the wind exhales
casting the earth into eyes of the child
blinded by shields of furious locks
… and he stays, she stays
Unflinching
Toes digging into the unforgiving
They stay.
Circling in the rain.
They stay.
The children stay to see what comes.
