Friend, stop a moment

Poem for Burma

Come, friend, sit beside me
on the river bank
Hear the ripples break the stillness
See the leaf bob on the waters

Now lightning strikes the water
A body floats by
And the earth
On which we sit turns scarlet

A child whose face
Is blank with despair
Sits amongst silent corpses
Looking at the murderer
Who does not see, nor hear nor feel

Oh, may we be his eyes,
his ears and his heart!

Hush, hear the goddess
who reigns this land
Whose precious feet walk
alongside those of Ghandi,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
Mandela and other noble warriors

Hush, hear her heart
beat the anguish
of mothers who have seen
their children raped and desecrated

Hush, hear her whisper
to her Buddha children

“and yet... and yet
DO NO HARM”



See her face imprinted
on the hearts of saffron robed soldiers

Oh, what have we done!



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© Anna Varney-Wong