Children picking up our bones
Will never know that these were once
As quick as foxes
Wallace Stevens
We, who live in shadow,
know hunger. We do not have
the stomach for small morsels
though our mouths are sewn
shut and our throats cut.
And still the children play
in the yard like unmindful
robins, their blood-drenched chests
haphazard beacons in the snow
of this perpetual winter.
In the unholy aftermath,
ours is the face of survival.
Day 5 ~ Survive
Izy is our host in The Imaginary Garden today asking What We Do in the Shadows.
This is incredibly dark, poignant and chilling, Kerry! The image of the children playing in the yard "like unmindful robins," will linger with me for a while.
ReplyDeleteChildren are often the victims of conflict. Here I imagine them, not as a hopeful sign, but just more fodder for calamity.
DeleteWow, Kerry. Chilling indeed.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was going for. Thanks.
DeleteChildren play, even in refugee camps, even in the rubble of war. It is rather a miracle. I am thinking of the beautiful song sung by the children in Syria that I posted last week at Poets United. The starkness of their beauty hit me much the same way as this poem of yours does.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that is our hope.. but children grow to be adults and the cycle continues.
DeleteYikes! These are terrifying images. I have to feel more hopeful, though the poem carries a great deal of conviction and is certainly very compelling. Thanks, Kerry.
ReplyDeleteWe do cling to hope though, don't we?
DeleteI read stuff like this & that vasectomy I opted for all those decades ago feels better and better.
ReplyDeleteWow this is gripping and powerful Kerry. It gave me chills and a feeling of sadness that does not go quickly. I love that Wallace Stevens quote as well!!
ReplyDeleteAre we sad for the ghouls or sad for the children of the ghouls?
DeleteNot only chilling but also gruesome! You create some indelibly horrifying images here.
ReplyDeleteAy yi yi the mouths sewn shut. That about gave me the chills.
ReplyDeleteChills are good, right?
DeleteI suspected you would take this prompt to a whole new level....This....is....just so beautiful in how you subtly evoke a very strange living situation. The images of the robins and the children with chests of blood is the best thing I have read in a poem this year. Well done lady and thanks for bringing this one to the page!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Izy. Without you, it would not have come to be.
DeletePoor kids. I hope the perpetrators get what they deserve.
ReplyDelete..
This is dark, but yet survival is a dark when we are in the jaws of horror. Your visuals are so powerful. It makes me want to light a candle and well...call something up to deal with monsters.
ReplyDeleteI will light a candle too...
DeleteThe imagery howls Kerry -- such is the future in the shadow of the dogs of war.
ReplyDeletePowerful piece of dark writing, Kerry!
ReplyDeletewhew . and here it's a bit after 1 am. some images to try to sleep to... ~
ReplyDelete