Editor’s Note: In view of Tuesday’s horrific nerve agent attack on civilians in Idib Province and in view of Friday’s missile attack on Syria, we are republishing John Lawson’s poem that we posted in December about the Syrian conflict.
Syria
dangling like a wire coat hanger
silence fidgets in a borrowed room
the composition of headlights refract
across checkered pastel walls
rows of empty bottles and duct tape
cast shadows resembling cracked angels
painted over a Modigliani masterpiece
time gnaws within
a few hours before
these tourists arrived to escape
the compulsion of semi-precious convictions
now bound and speechless
with all imagination lost
they crouch like painted paper dolls
blood lacking painted smiles
time gnaws within
fleeting moments build
as masked hoods flip through the channels
to stare in oblivion at their lack of news
sunk in contemplation
out of borrowing more time
with sweaty brows stumbling along unlit corridors
on a phone
fingernails rap in tweeting annoyance
a slow and deliberate anger exposed
ready to explode in a strange dusty world
unable to understand negative vibrations
create turbulence within itching bones
time gnaws within
gunshots to the head
moribund reminders to confuse
crossword puzzles and scratch offs
debates wither into self-absorbed likes
as dignity dangles like a wire coat hanger
lodged between innocent eyes
missing the return ticket
on an empty coat rack
