Reflection On The Triptychs Of Halim Al Karim At The Saatchi Gallery Poem by C Richard Miles

And you all stare
Out at me
In black-and-white
Triplicate:
No hear-no-evil,
See-no-evil,
Speak-no-evil
But…
Seeing everything,
Hearing everything
And speaking nothing,

Except with those eyes,
Those piercing eyes,
Those accusing eyes,
Those unseeing eyes
That follow me
Around the room
And ask me why
I didn’t stop the war.

Those contorted grotesques
Mock in offence
As I fail to offer
Any defence.
Was my indifference
Inattention
Non-intervention
As faded and dim
As the faces
In the spaces?

Triple ridicule
This city fool
As you
Cry,
Cry,
Cry,
Once,
Twice,
Thrice,
As your country dies
And I
Just look
But
See nothing,
Hear nothing,
Speak nothing.