The Siege and the
Killings in Homs, Houla, Hama (Syria)
(this poem is
dedicated to the unrelenting resistance of the Syrian people against State
oppression despite murderous carnage)
-by Tontongi
A Macabre indecency
a systematic barrage of
fire
symmetric even in
horror
cast a specter of death
all over the city,
maiming
and killing
from the sure distance
of power
power of the artillery
power of the State control
power of State immunity.
Removing the world’s
agenda venom
against everything
Syrian-like,
this Boston Globe’s article speaks volumes:
“During a terrifying
two minutes ...
At least 22 bodies,
including that of 6-year old
Mohammad Yahia
Al-Wees were recovered...
And amid the rubble
on the stairway of the
ground floor, 10
yards from the door and possibly
safety, lay the
bodies of two foreign journalists,
Marie Colvin, and
Remi Achilk...”
A macabre indecency,
but an irony of fate
and history
that the Romans’
wretched,
the terrorist of time
past,
special guest villain
in Others-haters’ show
and in the warmongers’
holy book
that includes offspring
of Saladin and of Genghis Khan,
offspring of Toussaint
and the shoeless fighters
is now killing his own
in
cold bloody indifference...
Conscience doesn’t
discriminate
even when petrified by
terror and madness,
even when horrified by
fear of the unknown,
fear of the
uncertainties of finitude;
fear of the cafard, the blues,
the blue blues of
Macabral;
fear of saying the
impolitely
correct thing that
disturbs the gentry
instead of seeking
clarity.
Still conscience doesn’t
let fear
silence her for ever.
What’s wrong with
calling for freedom
says this father whose
two sons were slaughtered
early in the morning
without much warning:
Freedom for the people!
Freedom of conscience!
he says even though for
his sons it was too late.
Conscience must not
discriminate
regardless the manner
the killing was performed
be it done by drones on
your family villages away
or on your neighbor
next door in large urban centers
like in Homs and Houla
in the heart of Syria
where kids were massacred
like toads
just the same the
indignation should be.
Killing must not be an
option
especially for a powerful State;
it should be in jure
or de facto
the never acceptable
mischief...
On a certain Wednesday
of hell
More than 40 women and
children were among
78 killed in Mazraat
al-Qubeir, near Hama,
killed by remote barrage
of the artillery;
those killings from the
sure distance of power
power of the blunt
interests of the State’s minions
power of immunity of
the Syrian army
— must now cease and
desist.
The people of Homs and
Houla and Hama must live free!
Tontongi, June 2012
