IRAQ POEM: Can your ears reach our land?

Facebook
Twitter
Email
WhatsApp
Print

CPTnet
17 January 2010
IRAQ POEM: Can your ears reach our land?
By Leland Grammer

[Grammer was a member of the fall Christian Peacemaker Teams
delegation to Iraq.]

Can your ears reach our land?

is your attention here anymore?

Have you stepped out to relieve yourself?

Do you hear our shed blood?

Can you taste the tears of our mothers?

Are you a father to every child?

Bring your good times

to our shanty

Love breath us into

symphony

Teach us to dance

through the pain

Your daughters are snapped like twigs

…where was I…

Your children are tended like cattle

…where was I…

Your sons invent new ways to die

…where am I…

I rail at the sky and step on your echo

I call for conveyor belts to drop from the heavens

and miss you in the face of an illiterate refugee boy

and in the friendship of a fisherman’s son

Categories

Subscribe to the Friday Bulletin

Get Ryan’s thoughts and the entire bulletin every Friday in your inbox, and don’t miss out on news from the teams, a list of what we’re reading and information on ways to take action.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Read More Stories

The war for Iran

The USA is gearing up for war with Iran. I’ve anticipated this war all my life, but I didn’t expect to feel quite so disoriented

A man is handcuffed and blindfolded and a woman carries two backpacks

When a witness becomes a victim

In an age in which the act of bearing witness carries heightened risk, accompaniment comes with an increased personal toll. Here, two members of CPT Palestine reflect on a particularly tense morning.

A gate blocking access to a road

The gates at the entrances of West Bank cities: division and daily hardship

Across the occupied West Bank including major cities like Hebron (Al-Khalil), Nablus, Ramallah, and many towns and villages, Israeli forces have significantly increased the installation of heavy metal gates and military checkpoints at entrances to Palestinian communities. These gates have become symbols of fragmentation, control, and hardship in the lives of ordinary Palestinians. 

Skip to content