For The Massacred - Gail Onion

[Larry Robinson]

For The Massacred

Don’t be silent now, 
I say to the poets
Don’t be fearful,
Don’t be timid,
Speak the truth my poets.

I implore your mouths of trampled flowers,
Your hands of faded laurel leaves,
Your eyes like old horses that have seen it all.

Our languages are in the fight for their lives,
But language has pulled the trigger.
Words wielded by murderers of languages.
Words with a hiss, words with a whip lash, words of shame
Words of nooses, words of beatings ,words of cages, words of hate
Words of derision, words of abuse, words that maim and kill
Become guns their intentions particularly
Orchestrated and targeted on black and brown women, men, children
Or churches, or schools, festivals or temples, synagogues or nightclubs,
Or a person place or thing that become objects to eliminate.
Guns that cut out laughter from the hearts
Of children. Guns that have endless appetites
For death,  Guns  that observe with indifference
The carnage, the inconsolable grief,
Guns that vomit their horror 
Extinguishing beauty and love in 30 seconds.
Bodies left mutilated in a bloody detritus of
Legs splintered, beloved heads shattered, eclipsed lives and dreams,
Hemorrhaging sorrow and rage that will never end.

So sing poets sing for our lives!
Sing us away from this power, money and gun infested world
Sing us free from injustice, from wars from terror,
Sing us brave, sing us truth, sing us sane,
Sing us kind, sing us wise.
	
Sing poets sing for our lives!
Make it impossible for us to turn away
>From the suffering of others
	
Make it impossible for us to turn back
>From creating a world of peace for
this one world, this one family.

	- Gail Onion