Elizabeth Padillo Olesen Poems

Enemy to the human body
Bolting and locking the door of hope
Ocean of fears and worries
Languish and flood human memories
...

What should we talk about?
If we dwell in dogmatics and apologetics,
We will be lost in the sea of endless debates.
...

It starts as a cry,
a cry in the wilderness
when the water jug is emptied,
a cry to hallucinate images of water in mind
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I am tired of your childish wars,
Israel and Palestine!
I am tired of your violent politics
in the pretext of self-defense!
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You were once a meeting place
of human goodness -
of the Good Samaritan, saving
the fallen victim of the hiding thieves,
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Your loving hands
mother the sick, the strangers,
the homeless and the orphans.
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Such a beauty to the eye
Of immense height
That blends in the sky!
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66 years ago the atomic bomb blasted
below the heads of those in these towns.
How many hundreds, yes, how many thousands
were left to die, consumed by man-made fire?
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It is down deep in one`s being
It is feeling alone in a crowd
It is speaking without being
listened to.
...