Se7en Minutes

title is homage to the famous movie.

You say, grow some thicker skin,

as if compassion is a luxury

we can no longer afford in our

little corner of a world spinning too fast

for writing the consequences 20 times

in chalk on the slate in your grandpa’s

woodshed. I have inherited

my mother’s biggest audacities

and her surety that we are all doomed

to repeat the mistakes

of our descendants.

 

We watch how even human comets

now blaze trails across skies that

contain too much ambient neon

light for the dust they leave to

be noted in the journals of the world’s

scholars. Yet, even now,

sometimes, it still happens.

 

You hear of something and you drop

everything because the world’s

humanity itself will unravel if you

follow orders to remain silent.

 

Last week, when the undocumented

hidden faces of 2800 children

were not enough; when winds 155 mph

were not enough; when 10,000

women’s survival stories

were not enough- one man’s

7 unendurable minutes of moments

autographed in blood on the

walls of a consulate finally moved

us all to imagine what happens

when the state calls YOU expendable.

 

The news made me cry this week,

the news makes me cry every damned

week. I would not exchange my thin

skin for all the dark money paid in

Saudi Arabia for the rental of one

man with a bone saw.

Author's Note

no picture yet until I find something that suits the dark mood of this piece. Dedicated to Jamal Khashoggi

Reviews

[Phill Oz O'fee]

The Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul is a homely looking place, much smaller than it seems, nestled into a quiet suburban street, and painted pastel yellow; who would expect this to be the setting of an atrocious act of inhumanity. I found your words and imagery extremely moving, with strong stanzas of protest and poignancy. The perpetrators are indeed a psychopathic cultural group and politically motivated assassins. Great, but harrowing write – thanks for sharing ...

[John the Baptist]

Well done. Written with passion and outrage that makes the reader feel it, too.