Ripping the Blindfold Off

 

I finally realise

(I can be very slow) –

of course they are killing the children!

It’s a genocide (we all know that) 

so of course they are ending

the next generation

before it starts. 

Before it gets a grip.

They are bombing the hospitals,

destroying maternity wards –

the new babies, the mothers 

about to give birth.

I thought they were – blindly – creating

a new generation of terrorists (war

begets war). But no,

not so blind after all. 

They are busy eradicating

the whole future 

of a whole people.

Contemplating this,

seeing more clearly

than I ever allowed myself:

I too have lost my breath.

Words have not been enough.

Decades of words, 

a century of words

failed to save the earth 

from effects of human greed.

How can I hope that words

might prevent the slaughter of children?
But words are all I have …

I contemplate changing 'they' to 'we'. Have we not been complicit?

Note:

In 1896, a seminal paper by Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius first predicted that changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could substantially alter the surface temperature through the greenhouse effect. 

Which Way to Turn?

 

When winter turns spring, 

shall I still be here?

A certain music

sounds ever more clear –

sometimes alarming,

sometimes tender, dear.

The river, 

once wide to cross,

dwindles: a stream 

I could step over with a toss

of my hair. But –

gain or loss?

A quadrille written for dVerse Q227. (44 words exactly, excluding title, with one compulsory word, in this case 'turn,' and its derivatives.)

Heartbreak

isn’t easier the next time

 

not a task you master,

a skill at which you improve –

no, it’s being stabbed repeatedly

with a sharp blade

each piercing as painful

as every other

every time

Form: textu

Written for Poets and Storytellers United's Friday Writings #185: Don't Be Afraid to Start Over, this was intended to contradict the prompt – but I now realise it's a misunderstanding of it, as starting over is not the same thing as repeating an experience with another of the same kind. However, as this is what the prompt inspired in me, so be it.