The Reality-Based Community

 John Milton comments on Darfur Awareness Week

With apologies to the poetic muse of John Milton, but not his political one – Milton would l think have understood, and forgiven the plagiarism.

Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered sons, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Sahel grasses sere;
Nor yet thy violated daughters' fear
Before they fell to hate as hard as stones,
Forget: and in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep, with gun and bomb and spear
Slain by the bloody Sudanese. The drear
Survivor camps feed men, rot souls. Their moans
The plain redoubled to the dunes, and they
To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes stain
The paper shrouds that cynics weave and lay
To mute the crime with spiritless refrain;
Turn reptile tears to burning coals; in pain
The debt to justice make the murd'rers pay.

Copyright John Milton, 1655(the good bits)/James Wimberley 2006
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