Arithmetic of Silences

Let us commemorate the innocents.

One minute for each,
for though they died en masse,
let us mourn them singly.

Let us lock our doors, go out
into the parks and squares.

Let us hear the names,
such as are known.

Rahad Septi of Fallujah,
Sa'ad Sha'ban of Basra,
Ahmed Hussein of Al Amin,
Nora Tamini of Baghdad...

The mother, daughter,
grandson, brother,
nephew and four nieces
of Mrs Truong Thi Le
of My Lai village...

Arithmetic of silences:

all the old, and all the young,
day and night in the city squares,
Times Square, St Peter's Square,
the Square of Heavenly Peace,

hearing the names,
such as are known;

all the old, and all the young,
in every village everywhere,
not travelling, not working, and not
loving: waiting out

the tally of the silences.

(Original closing lines:

Silence in all the world, the animals
unnamed again, the forest raising
its seedlings in accustomed silence.)



Flowers for Everyone

Let us commemorate
the dead with flowers.

Flowers by roadsides, by broken fences,
against the corrugated walls of shanties,
petals showering over regions of mines.

Let us grow mourning-flowers in all
the fertile earth of continents,
landscapes of lilies instead of wheat.

Let us revive that old cadaver, Mars,
loam her and green her and deck her
in poppies and butterflies.

There will be silence soon.
Silence in both the worlds, Olympus Mons
and Everest unnamed again, the flowers raising
their seedlings in accustomed silence.