Here is a poem I wrote a couple of months ago amidst the endless stream of bad news we must face each and every day.
Lament
The talk today is of war and civil strife
Jacked cars and hijacked souls
Shootings, beheadings and preachers of hate
Two parties shouting across a beige panel
A drowned child sacrificed to fear and spite
Fissured identities, spelled out in letters
Too long and too changing.
Confuse the unmoored past.
Bombs that tear open concrete hearts
Of ancient cities we no longer know
Two men in windcheaters rape a babe
A grieving maddened child submits to death
In a SUV that is filmed on its way
To a scarred and deserted paradise
this raises so many topics of importance, & does so without taking any position, because it is obvious from the choice of topic for the poem the poet’s intention. one criticism, i would alter “hold fast the past” i don’t think it has a place, said in this way in a poem this strong, it is the only weakness.
thanks for the criticism – what do you think of the revised line?