In Our Village

To our village
a stranger came
whose touch
could heal
our rotting flesh
but we never gave him
time to lay his hands
on our women and children,
For you see, yesterday
another stranger came
with flecks of blood
upon his face
an arm drenched
in the flow of our fathers'
our brothers' lives
holding an erection, soulless
spoiling to plunder
the treasures of our women
clenching teeth to rip apart
the tiny vessels of many hearts
cut from chests
of weeping babies
torn from mothers' arms.
But today's stranger
came with a touch
a tenderness of care
behind what we saw
as systemic serial
killing eyes
we never gave him time
to undo the cycle
of monster eating monster
of sect decapitating sect
of belief butting heads
against belief
of bombs nestled
into daycare centres
monsters leveling
each village home
mobs of frenetic souls
cleaving limbs
hacking hands
from arms
heads from torsos.
We never gave him time
for in the cycle
we formed the circle
threw the stones
one by one
with tight breathing
glee until
another monumental
pile of rubble
covered up
his corpse.

David Fraser

David likes to balance his life among a variety of activities in the areas of writing, education and sports. When he is not formally working as an educator, he is either writing and researching or involved in one of the following sports: alpine skiing, ski teaching as a full time professional ski instructor at Mt. Washington, BC http://www.mtwashington.bc.ca/winter/default.cfm , windsurfing, tennis, golf, cycling, hiking. In addition he likes to garden, listen to the blues, and search for his way through Taoism. He has built his second water garden which has become his new daily sanctuary. His is learning and refining his Spanish fluency and will travel back to Central and South America in the near future. He lives among the flora and fauna of the British Columbia West Coast. David is the editor of Ascent Magazine - Aspirations for Artists (established 1997).

Email: David Fraser

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