Fablespinners: Literature's Online Open Mic!

by Victor Om Shanti

O Lord, as we bow our heads before thee,
On this memorial of the slaughter,
By poisonous gas,
5000 children,
women,
and men
in Halabja, Iraq,

Grant us, O Lord, the courage,

That we,

Who suffered no losses of loved ones,

Who on that day,
and even today,
Were, and are, ignorant of its horrors,
Will be able to turn the other cheek,
Revealing, O Lord, our blind eye to their
Continued suffering,
So that it will not weigh upon us.
In your name, Jesus Buddha Allah,
Let us at the gates of Hell,
Pause,
Close our eyes,
Stop our ears,
Place a sweet lozenge,
in our mouths to quench.
Before we fall down,
Grant us O Lord,
To fill our pockets full of posies
Strip endless gravesites of their roses
Fragrantly dispelling the stench
from our noses
Let us on the eve of destruction,
Ignore the Kurds and weigh their plight
Against the measure of our comfortable delights
In peril of disruption

As we talk,
and talk,
and talk,
and talk,
and talk,
and talk,
and talk,
Allow us, Heavenly Mother Father,
The dispensation,
To hope against hope,
That with one more resolve to put forth a resolution,
We will not be swallowed into the maw,
Of the coming, inevitable, conflagration.

Ah! Men.



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