The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 8/4/09

"Mars in the First House"

What does it mean to be born in war?
Not a war somewhere else, somewhere strange,
but a war right here at home
with fighter planes falling from the sky
into the farmland you will walk on Sundays.
What does it mean to be born in a war
that hurls glass from your windows
and seizes your bed with its fists
while in the street outside, excrement seeps
from ruptured sewers and live wires touch ground
recoiling like your mother's stomach
where you are still a curled snail?
Do you shudder in there when muffled thuds
drift through amniotic fluid?
Do your mother's muscle spasms grip you
as doodlebugs fall silent overhead?

It so happens that you grow to hate the men who make war
and all your life you seek silence
as some people seek themselves.
You know that it could easily have happened otherwise
but fear is a faceless old friend.
Without it you sit still too long
wondering who you are.

~Judith Barrington

the why of it all. Nice. thanks.

And this one fits in nicely with my theme for the week.

I can relate to the stars :)

I like this one a lot...

What it must be like to grow up, and live, in a time of relentless war...

This line especially speaks to me:

but fear is a faceless old friend.
Without it you sit still too long
wondering who you are.

Thank you!

:hi:

Those last lines are killer.