Retribution Picked
warning: adult material
(I bear witness)
In times of war we do what we have to do
Retribution
(I bear witness)
they came early, dragged out the men,
nailed them eagled strung to the walls.
the boys they shot through the knees,
bent forced to cut their own throats, filmed
the black blood leak into the drains.
thick rain screams from turbid skies;
the Earth turns, opens its dried womb
for these lives removed, gouged eyes
blind to the fate of those left behind –
each stripped, whipped, gang-raped, doused and torched,
bodies, meatless, left for the rats.
I watched from the cropped mountain top,
among the rocks hidden by the clouds,
the children folded to my sides,
blindfolded – to such savagery
they cannot be witness; only I,
I carry the scars, memories,
seeds, which will trace back to this day
condemn the arms and those that armed –
complicit all, innocent none.
guilty all, those satellite eyes,
glued to the daily live streamed kills;
I know each one, will hunt them down.
word choice here is more than interesting, live streamed kills satellite eyes and you knowing them if this is autobiographical I wonder where you witnessed all this but I doubt you can be more specific. for all of us that spent many years thinking of such cruelty and knowing it happens every day somewhere in the world and almost lost our marbles, the slightest thing could trigger this retribution for something we hadn’t witnessed but heard or read about, we are many that know and can feel these things asking for the same thing, not just human and/or divine Justice,… Read more »
everything we write is autobiographical. we can only write about out lives and experiences. there are some lucky few who can build a new world through their imagination. i am not one of those. my world is full of dark light.
The British army in Bosnia witnessed this level of atrocity; some of those soldiers never recovered from it. I won’t ask if any of that may apply to yourself, but the poem does convey a terrible reality.
violence has been normalised. nothing shocks and reality becomes a streaming show. forget the armies – the people who are left to rot, the children who are witness to their parents mutilations, the parents who will never see their children grow; i write for those; i am one of those.
A visceral and vivid poem. Unless there is celebrity involved these events get swept under the radar.
This is life on the other side of your garden fence. The pain of looking into the eyes of a dying child, there is no question in their eyes, no “why?” it’s to be held, to feel the touch of a mother or a father. No one should have to bear that.
I have 2 children; hope I never have to bear that.
Thank you, oh thank you, for your gut wrenching honesty and bold no nonsense writing. In times of war we do what we have to do WHY? WHY DO NOT SEE THIS IS INHUMAN? OMG I lost almost all of my comment.~ Can I ask what part of the observer decides its ok to witness atrocities of this nature and go against the humanity of man? Is it because you are given orders? Only following orders…. What about the man who decides that being witness to such demonic cruelty and sadism is worth disobeying orders? I am appalled such things… Read more »
I will hunt them down.
Too late. You watched them die in excruciating circumstances.
Does not make sense to me.
If soldiers refused to do what assaults their soul these things would stop God I hate this world and all its perverted idealism and blatant cruelty.
I think Pilgermann was protecting two children if I am not gravely mistaken and if I have understood correctly he/she adopted them too. I would not be risking the life of others and I would try to hide them well first and keep them safe from all this until they really do not need me around. Kids and animals and women would be my priority. Priorities have a price.
I have two sons. To see them face this fate..would have me running into machine guns.
Anyone who knows me would attest to this btw.
well I understand, but it’s wiser if you first secured them somewhere and go back when they no longer need your presence at least for a while. It’d be better if you had someone to trust enough with your kids lives should you die too.
No, I am talking of the youths shot through the knees the cutting the throats.
well you have kids with you that you managed to hide somewhere, you turn to look what you can do and you watch such atrocities, the kids ask, you blindfold them not to watch, then you have to decide do you leave them there and go shoot as many as possible (and you may have to find a gun first [ and might find one and may also find the kids dead later] ) or wait until it stops they leave and you leave too with the kids to a secure place?
How do you come to this conclusion? Am I missing something?
I don’t want to offend you in any way but the line “I bear witness” Then .
In times of war we do what we have to do
Maybe I am soul sick of this twisted world where everything is inverted.
I do thank you for the reality check though, I see the world is more putrid than even I imagined.
this poem and allow me to reply again to you and I’m not speaking on anyone’s behalf or defending anyone’s choices, has some key words and lines, I thought that the bear witness part and I know each one, are very telling, if Pilgerman knows each one they know too. Retribution is also a telling title. Who knows what happened and where but it seems like Pilgermann and the kids could be under some sort of protection because of what they saw.
You do not offend me.
When they came, we ran, gathering our children. Most were shot. Some made it into the caves – none of our men; they were masking our flight. Life is precious, and yes we watched our families slaughtered, but we had our children, some of our children, and we choose to hide and live, their lives we cherish, through them remember those left behind. We will write, bear witness, and we will in our own ways hunt them down.