poem for HMD

writing/sound-of-genocide.md

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+---
+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.