There
are really no words to express any decent person’s horror - whatever their colour,
creed, sex or sexuality - at the senseless carnage in Nice On July 14 2016. Hopefully, though, someone somewhere who is perhaps harbouring thoughts along the lines of radical Islam, for whatever reason, may find this poem offers food for thought ... and think again.
At least 84
people were reported dead in Nice and many others injured, many of them children; their
crime, having the temerity to enjoy themselves on Bastille Day, a national
event celebrating the storming of the Bastille during the French Revolution,
July 14 1879.
In
‘The Age of Reason’ Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) makes the point that ‘…the
belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man.’ What would Paine have to say, I
wonder, about of the image of the prophet Muhammad every radical Islamist wears
on his or her sleeve?
CARNAGE IN NICE, (MORE) SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
[Nice,
Bastille Day 2016]
World,
head bowed, but only for tears
where
terrorism has its way,
nations,
left victims of its worst fears
Though
its nemeses breeding for years,
to
love and peace, the final say,
world,
head bowed, but only for tears
Freedom,
a crown of thorns, it wears
for
any who get in terror’s way,
nations
left victims of its worst fears
Wherever
fundamental dogma rears
its
head, the mad dog has its day;
world,
head bowed, but only for tears
Humanity,
for all its flaws, endures
if
inhumanity briefly holding sway,
nations
left victims of its worst fears
In
radical Islam, true faith disappears,
so
testify efforts to keep it at bay;
world,
head bowed, but only for tears,
nations
left victims of its worst fears
[London,
July 15 2016]
Copyright R. N.
Taber 2016