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Contests : War Poetry Contest : Past Winners : 2011 : Marilyn Krysl
MULLAITIVU, SRI LANKA, 2009: THE ROAD
War is an emblem, a hieroglyphic of all misery.
—John Donne
1.
A bad time came to us Don't stay here, they told us
The crows also spoke Don't stay in this place, they said
My husband took his tractor to transport the old ones
Stay in the house, he said Don't go in the road
I called the children in Their father did not return
Green heat rose toward noon Afternoon sloped down
I made my sons a bed beneath the stone hearth
If soldiers searched they would not look in that place
Our house lay in shade The Palmyrah leaves sighed
The road was straight and hot Bright heat rose from the dust
Families passed on bicycles with cooking pots, jugs of water
Others walked with bundles The old ones walked, bent over
I took us into the road My boys carried our water
I walked and nursed my daughter, a rice bag over my shoulder
The road went straight on Fierce, bright heat beat down
Don't stop, the crows said Keep going, keep walking
2.
Planes ripped sky in two Broken sky fell down on either side
Then the war gods spoke in voices made of metal
Bombs will come, they said ten smaller bombs inside them
Bombs will come to you, ten smaller bombs inside them
The sounds of those bombs broke some children's ears
Each bomb burst open and tossed out colored ribbons
When a child touched a ribbon the ribbon exploded
When the ribbon exploded the child exploded
My sons clung to my body The sun moved very slowly
Only when light faded did the sound of bombing stop
When one of us died we rolled the body into the ditch
Each night we dug holes We slept in these holes
We expected to die at night These holes would be our graves
Then day came with heat and thirst, sun and the squawks of crows
My boys cried for rice But we had eaten all our rice
The water we carried we had already drunk
My boys cried to stop I said no, I made us walk
The road was now our home The sun made us go on
A woman walked past us In her back lodged a bullet
In this way she carried the enemy in her body
That day some women sat down beside the road
Soldiers came in a lorry jumped down, circled the women
We could see the soldiers but we could not see the women
We heard laughing, shouting Then a scream, and weeping
The soldiers looked like us but they spoke the other language
They could not understand us We could not understand them
I bound my daughter to me and told my sons start walking
Hold onto my skirt, I told them Hold on and keep going
More soldiers came in lorries They shot into the crowd
One soldier in a lorry reached down and grabbed my son
My son's cry ripped the air I ran behind the lorry, begging
The lorry barreled on It kept going and going
My other sons cried in fear I told them we must walk
How far, they said, how far To the road's end, I said
They cried then for water We will walk, I said, find water
I became like a crow then Keep going, I said, keep walking
3.
That night when we stopped my two sons lay down
In the morning their sister cried but my sons did not move
I am glad they lay down before the burning bombs began
Those bombs were phosphorus They burned all they touched
They burned all they touched and they burned slowly
One bomb hit a cow The cow burned a long time
The burning bombs kept falling and I held my girl and ran
That evening I sat down I lay her on the ground
I had no milk to give her I had no water for her
I listened to her cries I listened and listened
Don't stay here, the crows said Keep going, keep walking
It's dusk, the crows said but don't stop, keep going
Then a bomb hit my daughter It hit her, and not me
My daughter cried out but I could not stop her burning
Though she cried out I had to watch her slow burning
Still she cried out I watched and watched that flame
When her cries stopped I stayed beside her flame
In silence she burned on She burned a long time
I stayed until the fire was done Then I covered her ash with sand
Sand is not a good grave but sand was all I had
Black night came down and I slept with my dead child
Next day the sun rose I did not want to move
Though sun had risen I did not want to go on
Don't stop now, the crows said More bombs may come
4.
A man with one leg gone dragged himself by his hands
A bullet shot a child's head then came out the other side
The mother lay him down Then she stood and walked on
Only the crows watched The soldiers were gone
Those still alive crawled past the injured, past the dead
Two wounded women crawled side by side
We crawled and cried for water but no water came
Don't stop, the crows warned Keep going, keep on
The road was now our home and the road was now a tomb
We were bones, crawling on We forgot who we had been
The crows laughed a black laugh You think we know, the crows said
But we don't know, they said We don't know, that's why we laugh
5.
I walked like a woman dead yet I wanted to live
We were now near the camp Soldiers stood beside the gate
It was said in some camps they made you kneel down
They tied your hands behind your back Then you waited to be shot
We knew that in other camps all were forced to surrender
and those who surrendered then were disappeared
But the soldiers in this camp were not like other soldiers
The soldiers in this camp must have had orders to be kind
The soldiers in this camp spoke the other language
But they gave water and we drank They gave rice and we ate
We did not care that these men spoke the other language
Rice and water are a language all people on earth speak
We lay down on the ground then but we were afraid to sleep
Among many kind ones there can also be one cruel one
But that night no cruel one came We watched the night's kind sky
We drank the night's kind light We drank and did not die
Envoi
Before the bad time came we had ordinary lives
I wove Palmyrah mats My husband worked his fields
It will always be my daughter the burning bomb found
I lived and my family died Why am I the one alive?
This poem won an Honorable Mention in the 2011 War Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers. Author Marilyn Krysl received a $100 award. Copyright is reserved to the author.
About Marilyn Krysl
Marilyn Krysl's poetry has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic and the Pushcart Prize Anthology, her fiction in Best American Short Stories 2000 and O. Henry Prize Stories. Dinner with Osama won the Richard Sullivan Prize in Short Fiction and Foreword Magazine's 2008 Book of the Year Bronze Medal, and Warscape, with Lovers won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize 1997. Swear the Burning Vow: Selected and New Poems 2009 is her tenth collection of poetry. She has served as artist in residence at the Center for Human Caring, worked for Peace Brigade International in Sri Lanka and volunteered at Mother Teresa's Kalighat Home for the Destitute and Dying in Calcutta. Alicia Ostriker has said of her work, "Krysl's poetry is funny, funky, tragic, brave, lyrical, humane, political and full of surprises....She is still writing the liveliest sestinas in America."
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