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Women in Black
Who could forget the many heart-ache days
When the defenders marched their “vouchsafed” ways
In advocacy of a full-doomed cause
With labors patient, long and arduous.
Be they not ever lost, good Lord we pray
But find their fullness on your chosen day!
For the arrest, the marchers made their pitch,
Of Radko Mladic and pal Karadzic.
And Slobodan,- who ushered in the tide
Of ethnic cleansing and of genocide.
In vain defenders lobbied, marched and cried,-
The sufferers were self-defense denied.
Denied the means and needed weaponry
Wherewith to fight the barbarous enemy.
With reckless puffed-up national conceit;
Ruthless ambition, frivolous claims and greed
A monster kindled from old cinders fire
And stirred up hatred and perverse desire;
The ghoul and cronies rose up to expand
By Ethnic Cleansing their proud Fatherland.
Their victims’ suffering grew as years slipped by
And ever louder rose for help their cry.
“Safe Havens” soon as slaughter house would serve
And torture cells replaced the homely turf;
And from these cells came piteous moans and groans
Behind barbed wire stirred live skeletons
The women raped and beaten savagely
Crazed fully, hanging from a tree.
Foul singleness of mind took on the shape
of purposeful and systematic rape.
Children, deprived of limbs in cradles bleed
Yet, unrequited stayed the monstrous deed;
Fop diplomats smooth “Evenhandedness” propose
For sneering ghouls that thumbed at them their nose.
But mass graves filled up at a steady pace;
Paid tribute to the nimble civilized race!
Oh Sarajevo!,- jewel, - fated gem!
Europe's so world wise proud Jerusalem!
Cradle of world wars, - destined yet again,
The prey of evil’s powers and their train.
Besieged,- cut off from its last water well;
Doomed to succumb to barbarous thrusts of hell;
Fair cities flamed, and terror held its sway;
The world looked on, and monsters had their way.
Defenders marched again some day, but learned
That Srebrenica, the last stronghold burned,
And that precisely at their rally’s hour
Armed thugs, victorious, were about to scour
And “cleanse” and slaughter all the males in town,--
Abandoned to the fiend,-and it was known
That their “Protectors” did not intervene
But ran in horror from the dreadful scene.
The marchers at these news, aghast and chilled,
Furled their banners - mission unfulfilled.
But black-clad women gather, weep and cry
Before some IFOR trooper or G.I.
And look upon them with reproachful eye
"Go,- find the mass graves where our men folk lie!
Your presence, can it fill the dreadful void
of our fondest hopes that are destroyed.”
"Give back to us our men or go from hence,
One thing alone we asked for: - “Self-Defense”!
So they lament till eventide draws nigh
And through their lonely nights - Lord hear them cry!
by: Elizabeth Dandy
In Memory of the massacres and massgraves of Srebrenica, Bosnia, in which countless thousands perished. This is a biographical narrative The war lasted from `1992 till 1999. All these years we worked fieverishly on behalf of the Bosnian victims.
As a member of the Coalition against Genocide we worked around the clock to stop the slaughtering, but failed. Srebrenica fell in 1995 and the war ended after President Clinton finally bombed Belgrade in 1999
For the arrest, the marchers made their pitch,
Of Radko Mladic and pal Karadzic.
And Slobodan,- who ushered in the tide
Of ethnic cleansing and of genocide.
In vain defenders lobbied, marched and cried,-
The sufferers were self-defense denied.
Denied the means and needed weaponry
Wherewith to fight the barbarous enemy.
With reckless puffed-up national conceit;
Ruthless ambition, frivolous claims and greed
A monster kindled from old cinders fire
And stirred up hatred and perverse desire;
The ghoul and cronies rose up to expand
By Ethnic Cleansing their proud Fatherland.
Their victims’ suffering grew as years slipped by
And ever louder rose for help their cry.
“Safe Havens” soon as slaughter house would serve
And torture cells replaced the homely turf;
And from these cells came piteous moans and groans
Behind barbed wire stirred live skeletons
The women raped and beaten savagely
Crazed fully, hanging from a tree.
Foul singleness of mind took on the shape
of purposeful and systematic rape.
Children, deprived of limbs in cradles bleed
Yet, unrequited stayed the monstrous deed;
Fop diplomats smooth “Evenhandedness” propose
For sneering ghouls that thumbed at them their nose.
But mass graves filled up at a steady pace;
Paid tribute to the nimble civilized race!
Oh Sarajevo!,- jewel, - fated gem!
Europe's so world wise proud Jerusalem!
Cradle of world wars, - destined yet again,
The prey of evil’s powers and their train.
Besieged,- cut off from its last water well;
Doomed to succumb to barbarous thrusts of hell;
Fair cities flamed, and terror held its sway;
The world looked on, and monsters had their way.
Defenders marched again some day, but learned
That Srebrenica, the last stronghold burned,
And that precisely at their rally’s hour
Armed thugs, victorious, were about to scour
And “cleanse” and slaughter all the males in town,--
Abandoned to the fiend,-and it was known
That their “Protectors” did not intervene
But ran in horror from the dreadful scene.
The marchers at these news, aghast and chilled,
Furled their banners - mission unfulfilled.
But black-clad women gather, weep and cry
Before some IFOR trooper or G.I.
And look upon them with reproachful eye
"Go,- find the mass graves where our men folk lie!
Your presence, can it fill the dreadful void
of our fondest hopes that are destroyed.”
"Give back to us our men or go from hence,
One thing alone we asked for: - “Self-Defense”!
So they lament till eventide draws nigh
And through their lonely nights - Lord hear them cry!
by: Elizabeth Dandy
In Memory of the massacres and massgraves of Srebrenica, Bosnia, in which countless thousands perished. This is a biographical narrative The war lasted from `1992 till 1999. All these years we worked fieverishly on behalf of the Bosnian victims.
As a member of the Coalition against Genocide we worked around the clock to stop the slaughtering, but failed. Srebrenica fell in 1995 and the war ended after President Clinton finally bombed Belgrade in 1999
id like to start my assessment saying, " ill try not to be predictable"
your divinity and your mouth may question and make the fault in atheists falter... havent had time to read all of your pieces, i like this one from what i understood... i often think poets write so my mind can pick and play with it for some mental nourishment, but this poem is to majestic for me to caper with, id like to make a musical epic out of it, but i dont think theres a voice that could sing these words for the lord to hear