LISTENING                5.02.1011

by Maria Grech Ganado

Can you hear it swelling

throughout the Arab world –

this wailing claim

for consciousness at last

of all its pain?

I am so sick of names,

call it Democracy, Dictatorship, Islam,

Chaos, Violence, Revolt –

inimical to the West or holding hands,

the despots must be told their time has come

to go – I fear for innocence trammelled

by politics or power, ill-fortune, ignorance, rout –

but this cry is for us to listen to

it’s humanity crying out.

mgg