Darfuri Cry from the Wilderness

“If only the world knew,
We would have done something.”
from Mia Farrow‘s Darfur blog, 4.13.09

Ohh, we know the plight of the Darfuri, all right.
As we sleep tight in our feather beds at night,
little Darfuri feet are on the beat
scavenging imaginary streets between rows
of tents bent inward fighting for structure,
sculpting organization out of raw air dreams
paved in dust.

Like many others, for me Darfur is more like a story
read once or twice, images suffice, and horror
is taken in small bites,
no different than eating grubs hurriedly
on an empty stomach perhaps
a dust ball between sheets of newspaper
sandwich a meal to read over first;
later the dying emerge as a dream scene,
clawing nailless into the ground looking for water
who thirst for death come quickly.

The sickly ones rival dust-covered flat field color of pale tents
their flapping side ribs sticking out,
extended belly called home but the line was busy
tending to the dead and dying.

Lying, if we said we didn’t know.
Doing something is always agonizingly slow
for those without means or a way
to make a difference,
moreover, the elite may,
and choose oratory instead.
The mighty and powerful claim
powerless over sovereign country Heads
of State,
but make war preemptively post haste.

Sound of clarion calls peal the air,
a brother’s keeper stands out, where
even the brave fear to tread among the million
dead.

Momma Mia, momma of the brave indeed.
Heard the cry of a People hoarse desperate doomed
in need
of a multitude of Momma Mias who plea
for Darfur’s living remnant
marooned off the shores of sand sea;
I beg of you
to do.
Reading, pleading, seeding thoughts anew
are not enough.

Demand our President stand by his word.*

.

Copyright © Janet Leigh, 5.26.09. All Rights Reserved.

*Mia Farrow’s 5.19.09 blog entry

“A stain on our souls”

2007, then-candidate Barack Obama [my emphasis] said: “When you see a genocide, whether it’s in Rwanda or Bosnia or in Darfur, that’s a stain on all of us,” he said. “That’s a stain on our souls.”

And one from him as a junior Senator at the big DC rally in 2006:

“Today we know what is right, and today we know what is wrong. The slaughter of innocents is wrong. Two million people driven from their homes is wrong. Women gang raped while gathering firewood is wrong. And silence, acquiescence and paralysis in the face of genocide is wrong.”