Songs of Anisha
“Your Cry Was Strangled By Distance,”
by Toni Kan Onwordi
Your cry was strangled by distance,
Made dumb by lies and dissembling
Yet, I heard your scream
I felt it pierce through me
I saw my guts spill out
I played Pilate with my own blood
This is no time for casting stones
Now is time for sober tones
This no time for laying blame
This is time for the soothing balm
When tongues cleave to rooftops
Swords exit their sheaths
And filled with bloodlust
They sow sorrows!
I heard your mangled cry
And wept too, when I saw
Your children: bowels ripped open
Throats bared in grim smiles
Your cry was strangled by distance
Muted by deaths across the seas
Yet when I heard, I trembled
Like a tethered goat before a butcher
For every life lost, diminishes me
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