by Novid Shaid, 2006

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The screaming of my child,

As she dies of hunger and thirst,

Has destroyed my taste for life

And stuffed me full of emptiness.

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My ancestral home,

Has been battered to the ground,

My tribe lay still and violated,

Scattered and strewn around.

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I regard with growing disbelief

The rape of virgin villages,

And the enrichment of cityscapes,

Which strips me of my hope,

And reveals my naked despair.

.

Yet still my heart beats along

It can’t give up the need,

Despite my unrelenting pain,

Deep down, I want to live.

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I’m locked within this hopeless state,

The world around me bleeds,

Pain surrounds me like a flood,

And still I yearn to live.

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Life for me once was a rose

And now I feel the thorn,

Help me to wrench it from my heart

Not suffering alone.