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Thursday, April 10, 2014

TO AN AFGHANI WOMAN

by Sarah Edwards        



Image source: Policy Mic; Image credit: AP
       

Today on my azalea street
The church bells rang
“O God of peace
Make wars throughout the world
To cease
To cease”

I walk out to my sunny curb
Pick up folded daily news
In a photo coffin
There you are
again
again

No veil can hide
The shroud of fear
You wear into exploding streets
To brace against the fiery dust
And death
And death

You send your children off to school
Into a backpack bombed out world
That tears their limbs and scatters them
Like textbook pages left
Unread
Unread

To Allah and to God
I do not speak
They do not hear
To you
I know not
What to say

Our bells are raucous
Clanging wildly
Stop now
Stop now
Stop


Sarah Edwards is a retired clergyperson in the United Church of Christ, who now turns sermons into poems and poems into sermons.  NVN is a well-used resource.