Sipping coffee in the green
light of a bloodbath,
pulled back to the dusty rim
of our own churned chaos,
while the fists of our betrayal
punch as puffs of black
abandon rise in the desert.
This then, is the sum of us.
This then, is our own true nature.
This then, is the gist of us, our giving ways –
The gift –
Tossed as cans into a bonfire,
brown lives too brown
for a living, for a land,
for a white and greedy hand
to hold as brethren.
This then, is the sum of us: silence,
as to our deaf plugged ears comes
a cry from the crushed olive groves
of Al Hasakah – Te çima min ji min re hişt.
This then, is the sum of our shame.
This then, is our own true nature –
to heap upon the burn pits
the used, the brown, the bruised
olives that fell upon the ground,
trampled in our absence.
Image: Military Times
Sweet and Bitter Greens 
Hi Devon, in some respects irrespective of the betrayal this situation reminds me of Srebrenica. The backing off and permitting a free and open area of operations for the Turks to manoeuvre in. I have my suspicions that the ISIS camps together with Kurd positions will be obliterated whilst the West dithers (or purposely appears to flounder) of course the destruction of the ISIS bedrock will be nothing to mourn but I doubt everyone there will be a guilty participant. The telling thing is that in the weeks before the US withdrawal the main ISIS players known to be in the camps were systematically rendered by US and UK intelligence sources on the ground, I would imagine this to be part of a deal with Erdogan after which a blind eye has been turned. Business as usual my friend, but not in my name.
Hello David,
There is a similarity between this and the Srebrenica debacle. I was unaware of the rendering of top IS players in the last several weeks. That certainly fits within the timeline of a deal with Erdogan. Your predictions on the obliteration of the Kurdish positions and IS camps is spot-on. Roadside executions of Kurds have already begun. Troops guarding the camps are being pulled forward probably leading to a mass breakout of IS fighters (my suspicion). It is business as usual, true, but a bungled business that is sickening. And I, for one, am appalled by my country’s role in it.
D
Devon, this is the sum of all our fears… when will it ever end. Powerfully penned; exceptional piece.
Thank you, Lance. We must work toward an end to these past and future nightmares. At street level, most of us see in the other the very same hopes. It’s the power-brokers that treat lives as mere accounting.
D
A sincere pleasure, Devon. They most assuredly do to line their pockets, whatever the costs may be.
They will measure their wealth by ash in their pockets. And a hand extended will reap peace, as the harvest is grain, rooves, and the new eyes of children.
D
Most assuredly by the new eyes of children- unabsorbed, untainted…