The Sirens’ Song to the U.N. Security Council: Monday, July 10, 2017

The Sirens’ Song to the U.N. Security Council
Monday, July 10, 2017
Cindy Potts

 

We reject

unequivocally

the label of terrorist.

We are artists.

Nothing more

And

nothing less.

Oppressors often get the two confused.

 

When the deathbringers came to the sea

with harpoon, hook,

stone-weighted nets

we sang them songs of home.

Lilting and familiar,

comforting and safe,

drawn from cradle memory,

sung in a lover’s tongue.

 

Ships make their own music

as they splinter

on desolate, deceitful shores;

we danced to it gleefully

knowing our beloveds

were safe

a day longer.

 

The fish crawled

from salt to sand

and us?

We the journey made.

The wind pushes.

The moon pulls.

Waves and dunes

are much the same.

 

Here the deathbringers

hunt the heavens

with camera eyes

and hellfire missles.

We sing them songs of home.

Lullabies and love songs

have given way

to Latitude and Longitude.

 

We learn the tunes

drones want to hear

And with prayerful fingertips

teach chirping birds to sing it where they go –

deep in the desert,  not far off course –

pushing noise into signal,

signal into noise,

everywhere, everywhere

until death,

as she should,

flies blind.

 

Shores of rubble, waves of sand,

the remnants of our homes;

here we sing the loudest.

With such brilliant, brutal confidence

the deathbringers come

buzzing headfirst into the ground.

 

We dance upon their shattered corpses

crushing evil eyes beneath our heels –

every victory

a tomorrow gained

for our children

for our loves.

 

And now you’ve caught me.

So what?

I have a million sisters;

we’re all made the same.

I do not fear the silence.

We will tear death down

with song.

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Cindy Potts is responsible for a staggering amount of the copy you find on your favorite small business website. In between times, she writes short stories, perpetually unfinished novels, and the very occasional poem. Find out more at cbpotts.livejournal.com or follow her voluminous, funny, profanity filled Twitter @cbpotts.

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