Aleppo - Childhood Gone
By Sandy Evans
Going to school is my favorite thing
Reading, writing and learning new things.
Running home to my family excited
Laughing with friends and being a child.
Opening the door and seeing mom’s smile
She says dinner is ready “Get your dad in a while”.
Away I ran
As fast as I can!
To do what she wished
She was cooking my favorite dish!
We’re sitting around our dinner
The lights begin to dimmer.
A loud noise is coming from nearby
We jumped with a jolt
As the night air filled with thick black smoke.
Stunned, dazed and not fully knowing why
The door blew open wide and
Mom and sister hide.
They must not see me cry.
As dad and I are dragged outside.
Never to be seen again.
Elitism spins like tops in hollow air,
Hypocrisy and hoax their hands deploy;
The world observes with feigned and fleeting care,
While innocents lament, bereft of joy.
Hashtags blaze bright, yet yield no lasting aid,
Selective sympathy fades with the dawn;
Bloodthirsty fanatics in shadows played,
Fueled by greed and ideologies drawn.
A cacophony of silenced cries,
Too sublime for a shift in hearts or laws;
They die in dust beneath indifferent skies,
And hope lies shattered while the world withdraws.
Yet let our conscience rise and break the chains,
Or Aleppo’s blood will seep through endless plains.
Words on fire blaze, then rescind,
Only to disappear in a scorching wind.
Words that devour light as they give light,
Dragons that slay in order to give fright.
A story fully complete, now thrumming,
The echoes reverberate, now drumming.
A mother holds her child in warm embrace,
Now dead in her arms, misery on her face.
Unrelenting memory fills a heart now cold,
A child now dead that wanted to grow old.
Utter desolation remains scorched behind,
Lunar skeletons now people the city’s mind.
A world on fire is now what it truly seems,
The world on fire is now what it truly means.
The heart of Aleppo has lain down to die,
The heart of the world needs to mourn its lie.
To come to its rescue for the sake of humanity,
To leave it abandoned for the sake of inhumanity,
The city will live on with other noble cities,
Lost in the forgotten realm of bleak anonymity.
Horrors inflicted
on innocent civilians and
children
That is what is happening in
Aleppo today
Babies buried in
rubble
As the "White Helmets"
rush to protect
the victims
What manner of
men can do things
like this to people?
Where are their
souls?
Let's pray the bombings
end soon
So the death toll does not rise any higher
All is not lost!
Peace must flow like a mighty river
If humanity wishes to continue
Surely an era of co - operation will arrive
"The darkest hour is just before the dawn"
That twinkling on the horizon ain’t no
star just another Russian fighter closing
to lay its clutch of cluster bombs
or a missile cruising in.
Winter’s solstice approaches, the rocket's
flare fizzles and only darkness remains.
Come morning, no flag will fly
in this city of ruins.
When you bomb rubble, you get only
smaller rubble, a few more dead
bodies and the unlucky ones
who ain’t dead.
More than five years caught between forces,
as leaders and faiths strike hollow truces
then bomb their own, leaving only
helpless rage and anger.
My only Christmas wish is to be
anywhere other than Aleppo.
When finally he falls asleep
He skims along from dream to dream
Across his face a smile then creeps
He finds himself beside a stream
Where flowers bloom and sparrows cheep
Caressed by warm comforting beams
He feels serene in slumber deep
Then all at once wakes with a scream
As bombs explode and children weep
Aborted peace ... a shattered dream.
There is a cry of hope in Aleppo,
A baby is born in the midst of war
Amidst the explosions, he shall grow
Reaching for that still shining star.
Who's right, who's wrong to desert go
The innocent must live in peace
It's Christmas time, leave Aleppo
This senseless war must cease!
Terror only breeds more terror
Let the children grow in their dreams
Let the children grow not in error
When a right is resolved in extremes
There is a cry of hope in Aleppo,
A baby is born in the midst of war
Amidst the madness and sorrow
Morning will never be that far!
-bestrevolver , 12-15-16
Look mankind what your leaders have done,
look at terrible bloodshed.
Your leaders, some incompetent, corrupt,
some were awarded the peace prize.
You incoherent World,
you leaders without integrity.
You who put wreaths, laurels on their heads,
aren’t you guilty as them?
Look at those dying because of your bad decisions,
leaders cleanse this blood from your hands.
Houses are broken in ruins.
Inhabitants of Aleppo - the martyrs of cruel age.
Women looking at death of their children,
these women are fainting from pain,
losing consciousness –
some from suffer can become insane.
Grief is rising to the sky, admonishing God.
Lord have mercy on these suffering people.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.