Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Selwyn Milborrow

two letters fom syria

“true warfare is based on deception” – sun tzu

a grieving mother’s son from syria wrote:

“assad, netanyahu, may, macron, trump, putin

high up in your united towers of proxy

knitting and knotting twisted wars,

life on the street down here is deadly.

peace decayed long before i could vote!”

he strapped isis explosives to his chest

and set hearts and streets ablaze with a remote.

his father consoles the grieving mother,

her heart blown apart, peace blown to bits.

oh, how the pendulum of proxy war has swung

as american drones gate-crashes peace,

russian warplanes kill innocent dreams

and acidic assad’s chemicals murder children,

only to deny they’ve ever heard the screams.

everywhere suicide bombers stalk our children,

and wage war with panel vans on pavements,

destroying every immigrant’s dream

while lords buy explosives for the next arab spring

waged by keyboard rebels fuelled by greed and deceit.

the grieving mother wipes her eyes and reads

her letter she wrote to her dead son:

“my son, let’s make peace great again,

for too much blood has been spilled

by bombs, greed and deceit.

how long must the news reveal images

of burning flesh and collapsed dreams?

drones and bombs doesn’t understand soft-landings.

unless we all refuse to remain silent,

and refuse to become violent,

peace will never repair our broken hearts,

or wash away the tears and fears

from syria’s battle-destroyed streets.”

Selwyn Milborrow

Selwyn is an author, poet and podcaster. His poetry and short stories in English, Afrikaans, and Dutch languages have been published in various international anthologies. Two textbooks with his poetry are used as prescribed texts for high school learners. His first novel ‘Shades of forgiveness’ was published in 2017.