Saturday, June 25, 2005

Me B POed 2

Title: Language & Abuse: A Poem Author: Guest Author

Abuse
by "PO'ed Poet"

in the newspaper: 'nazi', 'gulag'
in the kitchen: 'nuke'
in our minds, the words
overused
broken loose from horror
despair, anguish
gas chambers and crematoria
work details in the snow
shadows on blasted brick
molten light; blindness, burning
starvation
suffering amid ashes

when have you been hungry
seen your body emptied of flesh,
risen in rags to labor shoeless
enslaved, in snow,
found yourself burned blinded sick
calling for your children
when?
when?

and, if you have not lived
with horror sharing your bed
death for your bunk mate
risking murder to pray
how dare you use those words
turn them cheap and trivial
wear down the bone of their meaning
to disparage what is merely bad
how dare you bring us closer to forgetting
what evil is
closer to repeating the past
Send it to your lib friends...