Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Barred


THREE WORD WEDNESDAY

'silence, object, educate'
BARRED

It may be that I am brain-washed and I just don't know the facts;
It may be that I'm talking through my hat!
I'm very, very sceptical of all that's in the press,
And all the bit-sized news that's often chat.
But I hear of women suffering in silence, every day,
With the Taliban denying them their rights,
And, even if not all of it is absolutely true,
My heart aches at the thought of all such slights.
To treat a woman as an object is wicked and obscene;
Not to educate the girls is bigotry!
So even if its only half, or only a quarter true,
I'm sickened by this form of tyranny.
My fear is that our forces will abandon them too soon,
The women and the girls who wear the veil.
Of course, we want our soldiers to come, quickly, home again,
But if the women lose the world will fail.
*

---------------------------------------------------------------

ACROSTIC ELEGY


Musical to the very enth degree!
Idolised by the people of his age.
Charismatic? Very certainly!
His albums were, undoubtedly, the rage!
As a child he suffered and it left him scarred.
Each beating somehow seared upon his brain.
Love came, but much of it was marred
*
Joy never lingered quite as long as pain.
Although we saw him moon-walk in our dreams
Cold morning showed a strangely mask-like face.
Kindness and sweetness, nothing more, it seems,
Soon ended in the dock and deep disgrace.
Only his picture for us to recall
Now that the music's ended for us all.
*

11 comments:

Lalita Singh said...

Lovely and meaningful!! Great use of prompt!!

Jae Rose said...

That picture Rinkly - for such beauty to be held behing steel bars..your words were the perfect compliment...Jae

Nanka said...

Great post!! Barred for life is sickening and no worse than cattle. This could be true even in more civilized communities. A good message screams out of this poem.

Nancy said...

Excellent! Both of these!

Unknown said...

The message in your 3WW post is masterfully presented.

mark said...

I saw much to admire in your first poem. Very timely...

Linda Jacobs said...

This is beautiful but so sad! I just read Lipstick in Afghanistan and it was such an eye-opener about what women have to go through under the Taliban.

Lilibeth said...

I agree. What a life it must be for some women, but I know many do not know anything else and fear our freedom because of the excesses of immorality they attribute to us. It's just wrong that by our lifestyle we push away instead of help by example.

Anonymous said...

Brenda, your concerns are all too real and empathetic. We are so free to speak our minds, and yet our putting our expectations on thousands of years of bad tradition is not feasible. I believe women are suffering MORE because of our boys and girls on the ground, because men take their frustrations out on women as they feel controlled by the West. I want us out of there and a worldwide coalition, led by someone like the amazing Stan Mortenson, to build schools and educate women while helping men get back to work and subtly educating them as well about the inherent worth of women. Whattaya think? Sound like a good idea, or am I Quixote chasing a windmill?

eyeography said...

Both of these poems have been registered in my favorite list...

The first one is simply superb..
even if all that is half true..it is still sad...

The second one is a masterpiece... :)

Ramesh Sood said...

Very strong message there.. and also fun for jackson fans.. I liked the first one more..haven't listened to jackson much..

Thanks!