News of Syria

I fear news of Syria.

I fear the crying babies and the crooked old men,

Their faces ruined by years of strife and suffering,

Their mouths showing great gaps between their brown teeth

As they tell of their bombed out lives.

I fear the shrapnel’s flying and the smoke

Arising from the bombed out historic sites,

Sites long declared world treasures,

Sites known to Abraham and Alexander.

I fear the facts of Syria.

I fear the ancient toxic mingling of war and religion,

A mingling whose poison spreads like fog,

Spreads like the toxic Syrian gas will spread

When, tomorrow, it will be released.

--January 11, 2013