Summer in Darfur

August 2004

Whispered sibilants ricochet from walls,

Important men are talking in their marbled halls,

Life and death are balanced in the shimmering sound,

But no-one hears the maddened hoofbeats pound.

They drink the widow, all helpless verve and mirth,

While hoofbeats hammer on the hard-baked earth,

Young striped Grimaldis buy with bleating calls –

Important men are talking in their marbled halls.

Incarnadine obscenities luminesce the face,

Transfixes, leers, but never hears the pace

Of hoofbeats, no ear perceives the screams –

Acolytes watching endless electronic screens.

Blood-soaked sand of the thirsty Janjaweed,

Darfur deathshead rides a prancing steed

The Apocalyptic horsemen’s blade unmercifully falls –

While important men are talking in their marbled halls.