The wilderness of pain

 

The wilderness of pain and suffering combined swings like wind swung reeds

like wings of flight taking a tour of the earth

these eyes I have seen with my frail hands touching my own face

other faces in my dream

of children in sweat,  eyes dropping tears for food

hands and legs of my country are missing

and her people's voices are heard as cries of agonies

tortured, slashed open wounds, burned memories

of things human beings can never grasp possible

so sometimes I try to tell my story

as if I'm telling the stories the millions murdered

in a genocide others still define

My life in exile, homesick for the sentimental miseries of things I had known

even pain is desirable whenever I need to redefine my own humanity

What I do is write with the hope that I can ask other people to care

with words as dances to evoke their hearts

and to see and feel their world beyond themselves

that out there, far in the distance, the screams of others

are their own, with each massacre we commit against one another,

we are against ourselves

because whoever is out there is the mirror that stares right back at us

I have nothing to lose, when my arms are extended to those who are poor

and wretched

when my eyes are open with visions of a better, more just world

to see and feel these human things, which I cannot name,

is what shapes and forms me, my being to be composed

of death and light, shades of light and darkness, good and evil

that envelop portions of my rise and wake

heartbreaks that cross all racial borders in search of a pain free existence

I wish I alone, as if by magic, can make all suffering go away,

uncry all cries, heal all wounds, break all racial barriers, dismantle all hatreds

and bring the unjust to respect human rights

but I, nor God can do it alone, you belong to the same world as I,

with the same composition to help you make the right decision

so you, too, can become just and fair, with a heart to treat others as yourself,

for you are a part of that suffering which you see plaguing our world.  

 

Copyright © by Chath pierSath, 1999

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