Monsters' Ghostly Shadow Poem by Elizabeth Padillo Olesen

Gassed with poison
Struggling to keep life
but poison seeps into
their nerves and tendons
and death shuts off life.

Children stop their crying
And the body halts from
Shaking, eyes are bulging
And the mind is switched
Off from endless thinking.

Who is the monster
responsible for this crime
against the innocent people?
And nobody claims
to be the monster.

And the only active response
We hear is the military weapon
against the ghostly offender.
And the killings after the monstrous
gassing continues to shut off
the life of the Syrian people.

_____________________

September 8,2013
Gas poisoning in Syria