Allah Akbar
Allah Akbar, a mother cries,
Grief and anger wet her eyes.
The child she holds to withered breast
hungry, sick and weak -- at last
its suffering ends. The baby dies.
Allah is greater -- a father sighs --
than all the wealth that oil buys,
crushed underfoot this hope holds fast:
Allah Akbar.
Above the shepherds' village flies
the bomber fleet to terrorize
Moslem, Christian -- here the least
of them my brothers, sisters lost.
Each broken body testifies
Allah Akbar.
(c) 1999 Carolyn S. Scarr
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It's Not Calais
In 1347 Edward the III of England laid siege to the city of Calais.
After a number of months the Burghers of Calais asked for terms of surrender.
They were told to come forth barefoot and in their shirts with ropes around
their necks for hanging. Edward's Queen Phillipa, seeing their pitiful
condition, begged her husband for their lives. Her plea was granted.
One thousand Iraqi children die each week as a result of the U.S./U.N.
imposed sanctions which have been in place since 1990.
The Burgher will not come out
humbly in his underwear
rope around his neck
ready for hanging.
The king does not expect him to.
Each week fifty score small corpses
are thrown from the city walls.
The mothers' wails
do not bring forth the queen
to plead for a reprieve.
Bodies pile up.
No bronze commemorates their sacrifice.
No play is written.
(c) 1998 Carolyn S. Scarr
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