Sicarii

Photo: Francois van Jaarsveld

 

Sicarii  

 

If life could conceal sunflowers

in the corner of every heart

we could share light.

There would be growth instead of grief.

*

Iron jaws jabbed at your tiny torso,

tore off

what they could and the

hand that held them had no tears.

*

Your limbs flowered into blood

as you were lawfully lynched

for never seeing light.

*

Your tiny severed feet branded

a trail of prints into my heart

and I was given words

for a wretched world

that went on writing

your massacre

in their modern mindsets.

*

When a mild moment

murmurs for a slot

in time’s tumult,

there will be memories

of small souls that

have drifted from

this world as dying dreams...

*

But the tears will be

torn from

empathetic eyelids

by theoretical tissues.

*

A mangled body lies

on an aluminium tray

among tweezers and

surgical scissors sputtered

with plasma tissue:

portrait of pain

painted by the pitiless.

*

Dear child,

Someone sees and has

torn off

a light for you

in the land of the living

where sunflowers sing...

 

Janie Slabbert

October 1, 2012