Poem: Do not ask me for words (1992)

 

I shall not use big words to describe pain;

 

It doesn’t need dressing-

It is naked

It is simple

It is obvious in its anguish and hurt.

I shall not try to use words to describe pain;

I refer you to its gestures, I refer you to its symbols,

I refer you to pain- -

In the eyes of mothers who tear at their hair

When their sons die before them;

In the loneliness of widows,

In the bewilderment of orphans,

In the helplessness of cripples;

In abject poverty, in bottomless hunger,

In lost loves, hopes, dreams, expectations.

And when you have seen all these,

The terrible pangs that rack the soul

To a numbness beyond all words,

Then ask me no more to describe

What is so terribly felt.            

 

‘’Write a report’’, they said.

I say, a poem, as simple as pain

And as eloquent….  

 

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from the collection A Sad Piper , 1994