Replying to a comment on:

-750,000 in Rwanda (Free verse) by ALChemy

See how the Tutsi sleep dead in heaps and still they lie there where they die. Too many for the census takers, calculators, estimators. Too many for the senses to take. Hear our silence serenade the merciless raid. The order's called. The triggers pulled. The flash, the bang, the flesh explodes. and in the air the smell still hangs of a rotting sweetness in churches and streets. wreaking our futures bleakness Touch the ground unsettled ground desecration abound There are more bodies than bullet shells stabbing children snapping thier necks. Save the bullets for mom and dad. Kids are easier to kill.

ALChemy 10-Jun-05/5:33 AM
First off. "Sleep" is used to evoke a peaceful innocent image to contrast with the following lines. Secondly. "Heaps" can also mean a great amount and true some were piled into heaps also. The word dead is in front of heaps which in english usually means they're dead first. "Sleep" once agian is just meant figuratively. The bodies were left to rot. That is why line 3 and 4 are there. Thirdly. I did mean just the Tutsi. Genocide is specified. It's no less unfair than talking about the Jews killed in the Holocaust without mentioning the Russian soldiers. Which is done all the time. Shame on you Spielberg. A third of the way into the killing no one could keep track of how many were dead. They couldn't keep up with the death toll. Hense the last lines of verse 1. Finally. I did mean fire brigade but I do see now how the following lines may have confused you. Originally long ago I wrote "Hear the sirens" but I wanted to point out our (USA) ignorance of what was happening at the time so I changed it to "the silence" then to "our silence". Right now I'm considering changing it to "Hear our silence
serenade the deadly raid" I appreciate that point that you made and I apologise for the mispeling.




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