Uprooted
Uprooted
I did no wrong to
Hurt my neighbour,
I loved him like
A brother, and he, me.
No God came in
To rend us. Home was
Ours.
The land sprouted our tree of life,
And our roots, entwined,
Ran deep.
If home was where the
The heart was, then
That midnight,
Both home and heart bled
From every orifice!
The virgin land (sown with dragon's teeth),
Contorted in agonized labour, and
Bellowing in pain, pushed forth
A new dawn from her
Mutilated womb.
That midnight,
No one understood the
Wisdom of the barbed
Wire. No one knew
What caused the
Rift gaping 'twixt
Bed and board,
Or what it meant to be torn apart
Limb from bloody limb.
No one knew
Why the sharp chisel
Digging its point
Into the top of my head,
Cracked open my
Skull, spilt out my brain,
Split my face,
Cut through
The bones and cartilage
Of my nose, teeth and soft
Lips, and travelling
Down my chin,
Plunged into my throat,
Smashed my breastbone and
Wrenched from my chest cavity,
My bleeding
Heart.
(No one knew what
God or Devil,
What dread hand or eye
drove the mallet and
Why.)
All carved up but still rooted,
helpless, I turned my face to look at
The other half of me –
My brother -
And froze in terror.
I saw,
His eyes were hollow
Dungeons of hatred.
His mouth, full of daggers.
His face a bloody
Conflagration.
And our home,
Split.
And thus, I knew, my home
Had chewed up my heart!
From the prickling
skin of my scalp
To my achilles tendon, I knew that
From then on,
I had no choice
But to rip out every shred,
Tear each tender fibre
Of my branching roots
Up from my land, and
Run.