Brokering Peace, by Ananya S Guha

Syria they have used

you as a battle field

for a long time

your body is a soldier ‘s

your skin pocked with infinite

marks of hurt before death

scarred with wounds

of women and children

where is your history

your soulful people

are they in the blood

of those fields?

where are those fiesty

signs, love or music

where are those who have

let this hell loose on your

bosom, where do they sit

or are they swathed in your blood

your coffins?

whose conscience

whose voice speaks in those

sabre rattles, in those booms

of artillery, who now will mediate

or broker peace

among mangled eyes, nose, face, ears?