The Sound of War

I heard the mother crying
The child awakened at night
The father afraid for his family
The leaders screaming their anger
The villagers walking in the snow at night
The refugees exhausted and afraid to never return to
The houses trembling with collapsing walls
The hospitals filled with blood, wounds and pain

I heard the silent voices that will never return

I heard the Geese flying away
The Deers running far deep in the forest
The Trees burning and crackling, falling
The Bees smelling the flowers burned
The Rabbits digging deeper into the earth
The Crows flying left and right with nowhere to go

I heard the silent voices that will never return

I heard the river crying as she carries bodies
The old rocks and bones crushed by the tanks
The mountain bombed open in despair
The sky on fire, cut and bleeding with laser-sharp planes
The wind carrying the smell of death across the world
The earth sobbing with all her children wounded

I heard the silent voices that will never return

I heard the deep longing to belong
I heard the silence of unearthed grief
I heard the fake promises of Peace and Truth
I heard the sound of the wounded old souls
Screaming their pain through weapons of destruction
I heard the cry of love in the silence that followed the sound of war
I heard the sound of the prayers shielding tired bodies from the horror

I heard the silent voices that will never return

I heard my pain and despair for the world
I heard my own grief for the unresolved trauma
I heard my desperate attempt to love through my wounds
I heard a deep calling for a different way
I heard God's crying with tears of compassion

I heard a call for love that did not know where to go,
I heard the silent voices that will never return.
I heard the sound of war.

Angell Deer