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Poems by
Marguerite Rami
Marguerite Rami has been writing
poetry since childhood. She finds it the only way to access some of
her deepest thoughts.
She says, "I am deeply saddened
that after so long we still go to war to settle conflict. I am
angered by the obscene loss of life, always young life, perhaps the
best of our future."
"I have been moved to write about
the Iraq & Afghanistan conflicts for some years now, here's a
sample."
I stand as your
witness
There are those who come
home
And I am grateful for that
I look at the pictures
Of joy and thankfulness
That they are back safe
I bear no ill will
And rejoice with you
Your pain is ended
You have them back
I stand for those
That cannot be here
I stand for all those
Who won’t come back?
I stand for your
daughter
I stand for your son
I stand as a witness
For generations to come
I stand to remind you
Of what we have done!
Marguerite Rami
© 15 April 2007
My Son
(A poem written as if it were my son who had died:)
My son, my beautiful son
I want to hold you again
I want to hear your heart beat
I long to see you smile again
I ache to hear your voice
Everywhere reminds me
That you have gone
Everyone tells me
I’ll heal this heart
A heart this broken
Cannot mend
A mind this shattered
Cannot survive
I live, I breathe
But I have also died
Marguerite Rami
© 15 April 2007
I want to die
(Written as our troops left to go to Iraq and Afghanistan:)
My heart hardens
I fear my life
I want it to pass
So I can’t feel
My nights are days
It matters not
I stand in the darkness
At the door of your room
Reminders are there
Yet I don’t see them
My sight has gone black
As black as my heart
I hasten my death
By stopping living
Voices around me
I do not hear
There is not a moment
When you are not with me
Calling me back to where you fell
I want to be there where they killed you
I pray for the bullet
To pierce through my heart
Marguerite Rami
© 16 April 2007
Young soldiers
(Written after seeing the flag covered
coffins of the dead returning home:)
It’s always the unlived
who die in war
Young soldiers killed far from home
Home weeping for their young killed far away
Yet the dying continues to this day
We see their faces as
they leave
Smiling proud for a nation to honour
Do they know the risks, yet still they die
We at home weep why?
Into a war not of their
making
Leaving behind families forsaken
In favour of standing for government follies
In favour of protecting old men’s delusions
They do not ask why they
go
Or if they do they whisper it low
Covering their fear with necessary bravado
How else can they leave when we wave them goodbye.
Marguerite Rami
© 13 April 2007
Short lives
(Written in response to Israel
invading the Lebanon [2006], the world focus and condemnation of
Israel:)
Bring out your dead
if you can find them
Carry what’s left with care and pride
Remember the mother whose son this once was
Remember the daughter, her fathers’ pride
This is what’s left
of precious young lives
Bring them home safely so families can grieve
Never forget has been said all before
What can we say to sad eyes?
Marguerite Rami
© 13 April 2007
Madness passes for
sanity
Madness passes for
sanity in a world gone upside down
Israelis feel persecuted as they build bigger walls around
No one says they are ghettos, memories of 39 abound
They don’t seem to notice passing the holocaust around
Palestinians
lamenting they once had a homeland
Just right here where the wall is, some say they hear the sounds
Of home calling them backwards, always near the trouble
That’s why they hurtle home made bombs of rubble
Israel fights back,
then invades the Lebanon
Looking for the leaders, it says are underground
Months of dropping bombs there, after flying leaflets fall
Decides world opinion, Israel must withdraw
Having never lost a
war against its Arab neighbours
How does Israel go forward with lessening American favours?
Has world opinion shifted, or is this something fleeting
When cameras cease to be here, who witnesses the bleeding?
Marguerite Rami
© 2007
For more
information on this invasion see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War
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