March
written by: Kirstin Maguire
In March, Belgium observed three days of mourning after fatalities and injuries in explosions at Brussels airport and a metro station. ISIS claimed the attacks. The individuals behind the bombings were later identified by French journalists.
Thinned Air Freedom to Blue
I stood as a child, at airport window, fascinated
With jumbo birds’ fast engines, but I couldn’t articulate it.
That man had conceived from nature the vision to fly,
That we could rise up from our small patch to infinite skies,
Up, up over translucent clouds, to blue.
Through thinned air freedom to somewhere new.
When they blew up Brussels Airport and Metro Station,
I once again struggled with my articulation.
That man could conceive of so many means of destruction,
That our paths are laden with fear and homemade bomb production.
And it’s always the innocent who pay the cost,
On each side of the globe, so much potential lost.
A little while later, the bombers were identified
By French journalists who had been brutalized
By the same faces who now appeared in reports.
Two months on, Paris attacks were linked, it’s now thought.
And I wonder at translucent clouds’ thinned air freedom to blue,
And just how long peace and freedom are now overdue.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Poetry from a current affairs based chapbook called ‘Poetry Press: This Was 2016’
- Interview With Kirstin Maguire - May 9, 2017
- October - March 30, 2017
- June - March 16, 2017
