Every war bequeaths on us a new vocabulary
Of death and suffering and carnage
We learn of new words and new places drawn with blood and tears
By cartographers of terror and grief
In times past they spoke of Auschwitz and Sobibor and the gas chambers
To commemorate the madness of Hitler
Biafra sired kwashiorkor and children with distended bellies in a war amongst brothers
The gulf war threw up Baghdad and Fallujah where Americans supped on sand in the desert storm
In Afghanistan, the Taliban taught us to speak of Kabul and Kandahar with tongues singed by gun powder
When Assad chose the path of blood, we became acquainted with Aleppo as Homs jumped at us like a crazed bandit
Boko Haram gave us Bama and Sambisa both still fresh on our tongues like a stab wound
Today, as Putin’s madness unravels our tongues are heavy with the burden of saying Kharkov and Mariupol
Because every war enriches our vocabulary with blood.
