Silenced Screams

I can close my eyes and feel the shattering of glass,
hearing each individual shard hit the ground wondering if a child’s foot will run over it bare.
I can see the tattered wood and brick of a city under siege with massive machines of death, the B – 52 raining down tones of destruction.
I can smell the rancid odor of wells on fire,
choking the environment so that maybe a madman can hang on for even one more minute.
I can hear the screams silenced, of a people who for twenty years have lived under the scourge of tyranny,
fantastically rich as a nation,
but spiritually raped by the long years of an unopposed dictator –
Unopposed for fear of death.
I close my eyes and feel my spirit torn by the wholesale misery and sadness of this step, which should have been taken in 1991 –
Cut the head of the snake,
kill those that you must,
But no more,
so that renewal can begin.

SDM