THE DEAD CHILD UPON THE SHORE
“We men are wretched things.”
― Homer, the Iliad
“We men are wretched things.”
― Homer, the Iliad
Dead child upon this shore at Bodrum,
Where did you come from?
Did you flee with your family from Aleppo or Palmyra?
Your face down asleep in death on a wet beach,
Waves coming in from the sea,
Where the dolphins dive and sing,
Where the guts of sunken ships of war lay buried.
Who killed you, child, before you reached this shore?
Bankers, smugglers, or was it politicians?
Was it the Americans, with their lust for oil
in Iraq, that forced your journey?
Was it ISIS, with their demented vision of a Caliphate,
that brought you here near this city
known in the ancient world as Halicarnassus?
One of the Seven Wonders of the World
was famous here,
But the image of you lying peacefully upon the shore
will outlive the memory of Mausoleum of Mausolus,
And your memory will outlive us.
Where did you come from?
Did you flee with your family from Aleppo or Palmyra?
Your face down asleep in death on a wet beach,
Waves coming in from the sea,
Where the dolphins dive and sing,
Where the guts of sunken ships of war lay buried.
Who killed you, child, before you reached this shore?
Bankers, smugglers, or was it politicians?
Was it the Americans, with their lust for oil
in Iraq, that forced your journey?
Was it ISIS, with their demented vision of a Caliphate,
that brought you here near this city
known in the ancient world as Halicarnassus?
One of the Seven Wonders of the World
was famous here,
But the image of you lying peacefully upon the shore
will outlive the memory of Mausoleum of Mausolus,
And your memory will outlive us.
Luis Lázaro Tijerina,, Burlington, Vermont
Drawing by Alissa Gamberg, Burlington,Vermont
Drawing by Alissa Gamberg, Burlington,Vermont
