Poem: "Decade of Darkness"

A new era was on our horizon —
So many hopes and dreams for all of us —
Then shadows draped across the rising sun:
That new era? A decade of darkness.

Too few survived to see the decade close,
Claimed by God’s wrath, wicked evil of man —
Oh the disgust, anger we’ll here disclose! —
Lost in our country and a distant land.

Earth grew scarier, smaller one Tuesday
As terror struck us — us, we were attacked! —
And those events made our nation crazy! —
We’re a nation still borne with a soul wracked …

We — he — lost the way hunting enemies:
The tyrant gone, we were occupiers;
So much lost, at such cost across the seas —
We’ll be cheering when — if — this war expires.

Nature’s fury exposed mankind’s folly:
The desperate and dying in our own towns;
Homes, lives — bodies — swept away so quickly;
Here, here? Did I see those sights? Hear those sounds?

We saw peace shattered in a quiet burg:
32 — too high for names? — massacred;
Madness, horror found innocents to purge:
What our sacred culture of violence spurred!

Unscathed? Consider yourself a winner;
But, just pain — darkness forever — are known
To those with an empty seat at dinner —
If they still have a home to call their own.

June 8, 2008