Amputee
In Yemen,
a poet's tongue's cut
off; words chipped
crustied ore
in his throat: they, unrescued
silenced protesters.
© 2011 Maureen E. Doallas
________________________This poem, in Shadorma form, is prompted by a real-life incident in Yemen in May in which the poet Walid Mohammed al-Ramisi, a highly enthusiastic supporter of embattled president Ali Saleh, was kidnapped and rendered forever mute. In Bahrain, the 20-year-old poet Ayat al-Ghermezi was arrested, raped, and killed by government security forces for daring to recite her anti-regime verse.
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I offer this poem for the One Shot Wednesday event at One Stop Poetry, which each week invites poets to share, read, and comment on each other's work. Be sure to visit the site late Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday for the many contributors' poems.
But he will still write. Even his life becomes a poem there.
ReplyDeleteGood poem, Maureen.
A wonderful poem about the unspeakable!
ReplyDeleteVery powerful.
ReplyDeleteAnd I yearn for a world where such atrocities do not happen.
what is frightening is to realize that had you written and posted your words, living in a place like Yemen or Bahrain, this too could happen to you.
Frightening.
how much we take for granted ...
ReplyDeleteHeartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteChilling. I don't know what else to say really. Intense and chilling.
ReplyDeleteSo sad... makes one think of the freedom of speech we have in the states.
ReplyDeletepowerful, heartbreaking, horrible...I hope Glynn is correct and he will write from his heart, even if he must do it in secret.
ReplyDeletedang. if only we all wrote worthy of having our tongues cut out, i wonder the world we would have...
ReplyDeleteThe unspeakable can arise
ReplyDeleteTo those that are even wise
But the secret can maintain
Should the info one retain
Nice write
Although secrets still won't see the light
Brilliantly rendered. Sad that such things still happen in this oh, so civilized world of ours...
ReplyDeleteReally? At least it's not his hands as well. Great write!
ReplyDeleteYour powerful poem gives voice to the unspoken, forever silenced. We are so fortunate to have our voices. Not so elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteIntense and brilliant shedding light on the savagery happening here and now. Where is civilization, the voice of freedom, republic, democracy die on a muted voice. Excellent, Maureen.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that poets, throughout the ages of man, have been silenced by means of torture and denigration, proves that the word and the message and the energy they transmit are truly powerful, or they would not strike fear in those whose minds and souls are deadened, given or thrown away. How sad these stories, yet how inspiring for those whose desire to communicate, celebrate, and revere truth - means they must create. Above all else, they must create.
ReplyDeleteYou've tackled an unimaginable horror with unflinching honesty while avoiding sentimentality or hysterics. That's quite a feat.
ReplyDeleteThis bit: "...words chipped/crusted ore/in his throat..." Wow! It makes me feel the hard burden of unuttered speech.
Quite chilling.
ReplyDeleteWe may not have the kind of savagery you describe, but are any of us really free?
Thanks for sharing.