Poets Against War continues the tradition of socially engaged poetry by creating venues for poetry as a voice against war, tyranny and oppression.
Tasnim Qutait
21 years old
blue grievances
as old as the olive tree reads the text on the body fished out of the river in the blue light before dawn the line decipherable body still a cypher but the word is out
in the beginning the word, the riddle, the clue poetic self-effacing small tattoo waits for a face and a name to replace the black figures on the anonymous blank sheet
as the man at the morgue numbers the nameless in dingy dimlit rooms nothing is white anymore even at the height of noon
dark corners untouched by thin sunlight, streaming through bulletholes in metal doors through the eye of a needle silver needle retracing new blue greivances not snakes, tigerheads or proud flags no bold these colours don't run
but first name, last name, tribal name diligently picked out by a fine arts graduate, raw tattoist tattoing over and over a rollcall of death
a thin woman with corrugated skin and her own blue-green tattoo on her chin and calm dark eyes brought in her great grand-daughter last of the line, moon faced, red chipped polish on bitten nails plaited hair and red ribbons orphaned and cast back two generations
there's a waiting list: the dull-eyed, drained of imagination prozac zombie nation the bitter, counting off their dead on accusing fingers the rosary-clicking crowd agree to anything on the one condition positive identification
few cared to recall a past to be dredged for that identifying mark for the word, shape, pattern that would tell their story once they were faceless but the younger generation wears pragmaticism like a new coat get a tattoo in case you die make it look good in case you live
no guarantees, the self-made tattoist says he turns his palms up, they are even as the scales of justice, blue 18 and 81 filling in the lines no promises, no refunds
they discuss what part of the body is most likely to survive unscathed
and the neighbours children wear themselves to school everyday name, D.O.B, address, denomination, (digitally altered to protect their identity)
