A CLOSURE FOR DEAD ROOTS
He is dead
A voice told me
as I opened my eyes
this morning
Worried
that days like today
won’t help my psoriasis
So thank God
for these beautiful
little humans
I’ m entrusted with caring for
For porridge with honey and walnuts
and 8:55AM School run
in Hackney
Bye, dad
Bye, kids. Be good, I love you
They are ready in The Hague
I cannot face it
forcing myself to go for a walk
He’s not dead
I keep telling myself
Everything he slaughtered for
is very much alive and
eager to embrace him yet again
Until sick myth
transforms into a
glowing chapter
of butchered history books
Therefore
Continuing
Misery
Indefinitely
From a clear-cut psychopath
to a saint
in just a few generations
Grand scale delusions of
schizophrenic nations
I remember where I was
on the day
Ratko Mladic was arrested
Walking slowly the streets of Malmo
With my cancer ridden mother
18 years after we left Banja Luka
forever
Her phone rang
and friend asked for 'mustuluk'
They caught the bastard
Perhaps
there was a spark of
long forgotten justice
in her tired, drugged eyes
I felt for a moment
as if our tragedy isn’t a
foregone conclusion
just yet
He’s not dead.
I don’t need a voice to tell me that
But my parents are.
Buried on the opposite sides
of the World
Equally far away from their birthplace
Both equally
ethnically cleansed
Neither receiving a closure
You’re dead too!
The voice comes back
You’ve been dead for 25 years
And everyone of similar curse
Scattered across the Earth
Had been dead
all this time.
Your roots have been pulled out
Your steps
Your love
Your misery
Your name
had been erased
from collectively
fictionalised past
I escaped into a familiarity
of Supermarket shelves
Could stock up on katsu curry
Get some fruit
and milk
Christmas selections already on display
Mmmm... tempura king prawns
Twelve for two quid
Whole family embraced
Japanese food this year,
We really did
Oooh...pomegranate juice
Two for two.
Better get that too.
By the time I got home
Ratko Mladic have been sentenced
To a life in prison
For a number of crimes
Which
As judge said
“rank among most heinous
known to humankind
and include
Genocide
and
Extermination”
He exited the courtroom
in true Serbian hero fashion;
Shouting obscenities over conspiracies
Threatening the judge
With a raised left hand
I’ve read somewhere
Those who gesticulate
with their left hand
as they speak
Don’t really believe in
what they’re saying
I make some coffee
I roll it up
(larger than usual)
I take my “Ten New Songs”
Leonard Cohen vinyl out
It is hard for me to imagine
a lyrically more accomplished
Album
I open my windows wide
allowing the wisdom
of True Master
To breeze through the neighbourhood
He is dead.
But Leonard isn’t.
Ratko Mladic is dead.
And those who will
Lament
General’s fate today
are also dead
and have been
for past twenty five years
And I am
Scarred and
Shattered and
Bruised and
Battered and
Very much
Alive
