[lbo-talk] Dennis Brutus poetry (1/day in '09): "Still the sirens", 1/1/09

[Patrick Bond]

(The Centre for Civil Society will circulate a Dennis Brutus poem every 
day in 2009, that's the New Year's resolution. Many will be new, but 
some old good ones are worthy of recall, too. Dennis provides a sentence 
of intro. If you want to continue to get these each day, please email me 
- pbond at mail.ngo.za - or subscribe to the 'debate' email listserve: 
http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate)

INTRO: The Sirens of oppression I referred to in my first collection 
(1963) were still present in South Africa in 1989, as they seem to be as 
well in Gaza in 2009 thanks to Israel's bombing spree.

Dennis Brutus, Durban 1/1/09

***

Still the sirens

Still the sirens
stitch the night air with terror—
pierce hearing’s membranes
with shrieks of pain and fear:
still they weave the mesh
that traps the heart in anguish,
flash bright bars of power
that cage memory in mourning and loss.
Still sirens haunt the night air.
Someday there will be peace
someday the sirens will be still
someday we will be free.
1989