diff --git a/writing/sound-of-genocide.md b/writing/sound-of-genocide.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d47ba3a --- /dev/null +++ b/writing/sound-of-genocide.md @@ -0,0 +1,29 @@ +--- +title: What is the sound of a genocide? +description: A poem reflecting on the sounds and pathways to genocide +date: 2025-01-27 +author: Jennifer C J Radtke +--- + +# What is the sound of a genocide? + +Does a genocide sound like the judgement in court, +the hammer come down, rustling paper and the jangle of keys; +now some of the guilty must pay for their crimes? + +Or does it sound like the screams of the victims, +the bullets, the gas and the anguish of people discarded; +the last whisper of breath of the last one to die? + +Is it more like the clattering of trains on their tracks, +the orders given, the bustle and then the final slam of the door +as the people inside murmur their unease? + +Perhaps a genocide can be heard coming in the chorus of hate, +escaping the shadows on roads paved with silence, +as pens scratch on paper and plans come together? + +Do you hear it in the voice of one who sees profit in division, +the denial that such things ever happened, or could happen here, +or in the silent heart of one who looks upon another, and says, I -- +I am better.