The Long Genocide Poem by John E Marks

Notre Dame's Gothic aspiration

Became a symbol of the French nation.

It took one hundred years

To build Notre Dame cathedral

1160 - 1260.

Within two hundred years

Of its completion

The largest cathedral in the Christian world

St Sophia's cathedral in Constantinople

Built to the glory of God

In 537AD,

The centre of Orthodox Christianity,

Was converted into an Ottoman mosque.

In 1453

This centre of Orthodox Christianity

Had ceased to be.

Minarets were added to the cathedral.

Constantinople became Istanbul.

In 2019 there are 15 million Muslims in Istanbul

And 2000 Christians - suvivors

Of the longest series of genocides

In the history of the world

Which continue to this day.

In 2014 Daesh launched an offensive

Against the Assyrian Christians of the Nineveh Plain

Near Mosul in Iraq

This was nothing new

The Christian community in Iraq has been under attack

For 1300 years

It is a miracle that they have survived

So long.