Sunday, April 21, 2013

Ah Infidels of reason


Blood Smears by Talia Felix



Ah infidels of  reason
A Mother's Lament 


Ah infidels

one shock folded
into another
struggle spent
I placed one hand on
each still thin shoulder
and we shipped to shelter
shunning hate - together 
smiling

Ah infidels

In this land of lush
bursting possibility
you blossomed
both and thrived
my shining testament
to childhood resilience
and hope renewed

Ah infidels

of once silk soft skin
thirsty minds, malleable hearts
empathy and compassion
my smiling boys
how have you come to
harden as clay fired
Unrecognizable from the
Oven of indoctrinated hatred

Ah infidels

One shock folded
into another
you have been snatched from
my still-leaking
still-yearning breasts
I reach for you -
babes I bore
in remembrance of velvet feet
against my ribs

Ah Infidels

I reach
I reach
and
clutch
as in an
unending
searching dream
nothing 
but empty air


Ah infidels

Struck-senseless
sons of mine 
whose same hands
clutched but a moment ago 
for purchase
smack suckling  
now our sanctuaried streets
strewn 
with your catastrophic carnage

Ah infidels

My bright-eyed boys burnt to ash
now men-grown 
together in twisted 
brotherhood of incomprehension
you bomb...

targeted shrapnel -
exploding my
intertwined heart -
scattering my
shattered soul
infidels betraying all you have received
infidels desecrating all we held holy
in love, in family, in life

Ah infidels
you sons of
squander -
your hard won promise
purloined for hatred-
I look for
you in these
flickered images -
Stare at streets
carnage claimed
stained indelibly
as with my own blood
running

Ah infidels

my boys
vanished
my spirit vanquished
I stare mute - 
I do not scream 
for your ears now deafened
I do not claw my face in grief
before your blind eyes

One shock folded
onto another
you are irrevocably gone
burnt in the billowed tendrils
of your poison ignited tossed toxic smoke

Ah infidels

My infidels -
you are 
Sacrilege to the
the sunlight
fallen to darkness as
rotted fruit
Of my wounded womb
Bloodied handprints
smear my head - rip my heart 

Until 
Unable to stand
mortally maimed
I bleed 
soul spent 
decreed an infidel by you
who have shambled sacred 
mother laughing love
into endless dying

Ah infidels
I ran from such heartless damnation
protecting my children from the men
you have become 

Ah infidels of reason 
infidels of compassion
infidels of love 
I am a legless torso
a headless neck
hemorrhaging 
until I am but a husk
blowing in the smoke
of your incomprehensible 
destruction  









50 comments:

  1. When it's someone we don't know, we always blame the parents... When it's someone we do know, we always sympathise with the parents...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes "Stanski" - you are correct - that is an inclination for many -

      Delete
  2. Such a powerful sense of grief and loss in this poem, each line perfectly penned. An amazing poem!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah Lisa thank you - I did go back and tweak it a bit as it was quite raw in content and writing when I posted.

      Delete
  3. Excellent job, Pearl, taking this from the mother's perspective. You've done a superb job of it.

    I am staying away from this subject. I wouldn't do it justice, I'm afraid, and there are more than enough of those who will. I'm so happy to see you among us again today. Welcome back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Claudsy thank you - I did go back and tweak it a bit and Claudette J. Young you know you would more than do the subject "justice" - thanks for the welcome back :)

      Delete
  4. "One shock folded onto another..." Whew, I FELT your poem, Pearl. The horror of the happening is palpable through your words. The last stanza leaves me breathless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Mary - I did go back and rework this a bit - but I am humbled by your comment - thank you much.

      Delete
  5. I'm shocked to silence, Pearl. This is haunting. Strong write, I love the perspective, and the repetition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brenda - I did go back and tweak a bit - look what a handful of 'your words' can unleash - my first thought on seeing those faces were "what must a mother feel?" I am aware that I looking at this and taking tremendous poetic license in seeing things through the prism of my own feelings and perhaps there might be a mother somewhere who would see things quite differently - so be it -.... I've written what I would imagine might be the perspective of one who bore infants and has watched them grow to this adulthood. :(

      Delete
  6. The search for the reasons of why and how could this happen will continue for a long time, one thinks. Your poem is filled with caring and with yearning as well as deep sadness and sorrow.

    Elizabeth
    http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/after-breaking/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Elizabeth I did do a bit of tweaking since your reading - but you of course are absolutely correct the desire to understand the 'why' of such actions will outlive this poem.

      Delete
  7. Wow! You really captured the heart of a woman - a mother - amazing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Marian - I did add a bit for clarity later in the evening. Thank you for enjoying the poem in its first draft ... I needed to do something with those feelings and the wordle words had them fall together.

      Delete
  8. Pearl, I think you have brilliantly captured here what the mother of those young men must feel. A fantastic write.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww Sherry thank you - deeply appreciate your comments always - today especially

      Delete
    2. Sherry - I did go back and tweak the poem a bit

      Delete
  9. Well scripted and meticulously planned!!A passionate expression of grief and sorrow, regrets disappointments and complaints!! A soulful song!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nanka , oh my! Such a wonderful comment to receive " a soulful song" thank you so very much. I did go back and tweak the poem and hope you will enjoy the additions.

      Delete
  10. So powerful, Pearl. I agree with Sherry about the mother and how she must feel.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you so much for stopping by - planning on reading your remix - hopefully this evening

      Delete
    2. Laurie - I did not get to your remix last night - hopefully tonight - thanks again and wanted you to know that I did a bit of tweaking this poem here and there.

      Delete
  11. A wonderful description of the heartbreak a mother would feel under such painful circumstances.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Lisa ... later in the evening I made some additions and clarifications - delighted you enjoyed the raw version - that I just had to write.

      Delete
  12. Replies
    1. Thanks STG .. (oh sorry using those initials sounds a bit medical) at any rate thanks for stopping - I did a little more work on this poem later in the evening.

      Delete
  13. You expertly capture the grief in your words.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Jennifer - thank you so very much for stopping and your comments. I did do a little more work expanding the mother's viewpoint later in the evening. Appreciate your enjoying the poem on this horrific subject in its rawest form.

      Delete
  14. Yes, the point of the poem is the mother's anguish at how her sons have become "infidels" (non-believers in love) and in turning the term infidel on its ear trying to show how this insanity has torn this imagined mother's heart leaving her blown to bits bleeding out ... I'm sorry if this was misleading or poorly executed.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Powerful indeed!

    I saw a brief snippet on TV of the father back in Russia, seeming dull with shock, saying repeatedly, 'They wouldn't have done this. They were framed. I know they were framed. And those cowards shot the boy dead.' Poor man! And how much worse when/if he realises they did do it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Rosemary there is much to be learned in the "real-life" story here as I wrote earlier to Brenda - kind supplier of this wonderful wordle words that inspired these images ... I fully realize that I am seeing and expressing this event through my eyes and that the 'reality' of the parents' might be quite different. Nevertheless, I do believe in my heart that there is a common human experience here that I attempted to articulate.

      Delete
  16. Oh Pearl, you have done such a masterful job here, capturing the anguish of a mother betrayed and surely she must feel such horror and disbelief at what her progeny hath wrought. I found myself wondering even briefly how I would live with such knowledge and couldn't even bear to think of it ...

    Fates be kind that she (and the father) are able to get past this, able to convince themselves that they did not create these aberrations (for how will they live with themselves, if they think for a moment that they did? and we know there will be enough people ready to point fingers and doubt them no matter what their ideology is or isn't...)

    I think you have come very close to crawling inside this woman's skin and it's a haunting heart-breaking portrayal...well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sharon you know your words always mean a great deal to me - and now is no exception ... As I've written to Rosemary and to Brenda - the "reality" of the parents' point of view and perspective about these events is still hazy - and obviously I have taken a great deal of poetic license in attempting to "crawl inside this mother's head" and to assume that there is a common maternalism that is beyond ideology. Thank you again for stopping and for taking the time from your own project to read and to comment at such length.

      Delete
  17. thanks for sharing this, pearl. it is excellent. so sad. so precise. so exquisite.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw Jodi - you know I think that your heart is shining - and so I thank you for these words. So very deeply appreciated.

      Delete
  18. This is stunning, telling but most importantly sympathetic to the madness that has engulfed the world where greed and poverty, love and hate, bigotry and compassion are swirling in this awful soup of humanity.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OH! Your comment is pure poetry! Thank you - I tend to see the "soup of humanity as at its heart sweet" but placed on a table "swirling" and "engulfed" in the world that you described.

      Delete
  19. In tears, Pearl...you have so eloquently written the words that have been burning in my heart all week. Thank you for writing this. You are a gift to the worlds.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww Linda - you humble me and lift me at the same moment. As a poet you know how touched I am that I have touched you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

      Delete
  20. In tears, Pearl...you have so eloquently written the words that have been burning in my heart all week. Thank you for writing this. You are a gift to the worlds.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Oh, Pearl. I have no words. This is eloquent and powerful and so well done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Awww De. You know how much I enjoy your writing - I am deeply touched that I touched you writing about this horrific event - Thank you.

      Delete
  22. Excellent portrayal of the mother's grief and the haunting question of how such darling little children birthed in love, grow up killing little children in hate. Well exeuted with much feeling and wisdom Pearl. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh Iris - your comment is a poem itself - "little children birthed in love, grow up killing little children in hate." Thank you so very much :)

      Delete
  23. Extremely well written and important piece.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh my McGuffy thank you for these words - they do mean a great deal to me - to think that someone deems something you've written "important" is an honor indeed. Thank you.

      Delete
  24. Stormcat - I did go back and tweak this poem - your comment did get me thinking and although I thought it was originally clear I could easily see where the point I was trying to make could have been lost. Hopefully you'll have a chance to take a look and let me know if the second version strikes you as clearer.

    ReplyDelete
  25. To look through another's eyes and live the pain. If only that could be done before the bullets and the bombs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah yes Jules - were that it were so. I suppose that is part of the impetus and unexpressed hope in writing, in feeling, in being a compassionate human in today's oft-times less than understanding spinning cerulean marble on which we all spin.

      Delete
  26. Baccarat | Table games | FBCasino
    "I have to try these four 출장샵 variations for jordan 13 retro clearance real money 메리트 카지노 가입 쿠폰 and have some of 188bet the best prices febcasino in Vegas, so I definitely go

    ReplyDelete