Da'four

I

Chocolate flavoured tears
Of the mute women of Da'four
Taste forever bitter

II


I dream of large canvases with
warm chocolate coloured women
draped defiantly in bright
flowing fabric - purple, pink, orange -
arranged against a stark golden desert.
Alert, unbending bodies
with mute closed mouths
and dry - bright - white eyes
that say nothing
of burning children
and headless husbands,
of marauding horsemen
and violent rapes,
of unlivable lives
and undying deaths.
I stare transfixed till
the colour spills on the floor
and I must rush
to gather it in my palms
before it smears the earth;
but I wake too late in a silent sweat,
day after day, screaming soundlessly
while the world sings a song, on a large stage,
about the visions of Da'four.

(c) Anita V. July 2005