WAR Poem: Talas 812 BCE, by Karen Frederick

The light departed. Demons roamed the land tearing flesh, consuming hearts. The child, Talas, taken from her mother’s dead arms spoke her sorrow song and they took her tongue. She wrote: they took her hands. She cried; they took her eyes. She danced her pain; they took her feet. They tied her ravaged body to a signpost, a warning.

Desiccated flesh fell from bone, became new earth, feeding water and air. The tendrils of her heart song rose, whipsawing the land, purging it of pain. Talas sang. Lamentations for the new
beginning. The heavens weep Talas sorrow song.

Author: poetryfest

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