The burden of absence
savages the heart.
How to give voice
to the horrors of grief?
In the valley of tears
rivers from Eden run
red with the salt of blood.
In this Promise Land
parents and prayers
are exiled by violence.
Each day
an angel is fallen.
The naming of victims!
In gardens of hatred
the flowering of graves.
Hope lies buried
under the frail
bodies of children.
Serpent
of our shame.
*In Ukraine, the foreign invader targets civilians, but the Ukrainian people unite and fight back. In America, domestic gunmen massacre school children and nothing gets done to prevent it happening again.
David Sparenberg is author of CONFRONTING the CRISIS: Essays & Meditations On Eco Spirituality in the Earth Spirit Series. An international essayist and eco-poet, David lives in Seattle, WA in the Pacific Northwest, USA.
