Sunday, August 03, 2014

"We are sated with contempt"

"Handle with Care" photo by grant rambojun,
used with permission, cc license

Burn all the holy books, the sacred
and the profane. I have no words
that lack the power to wound.  Burn
them all. Burn them all and rake
the cold ashes of a world sated
with contempt over every battlefield,
over each sleepy village green and desert oasis.
We have salted this earth with the language of hate,
spit and hurled from mouths that shape
every dialect, every language, everything
once beautiful and fragile into death.
Soon the only sound left will be a wind
thick with ash and a terrible keening.

--LJ Cohen, August, 2014

2 comments:

  1. I am trying to find ways this isn't true. Will let you know if I'm successful.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Susan. As you probably know, it takes a lot to shake me from my typical optimism. I am heartsick at what I see in the world. I, too, want this to be untrue.

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