Metaphor

by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Friday 20th September 2013 5:20 pm (first posted Monday 16th September 2013 1:01 pm)

No longer do we slice, strangle

bludgeon or burn victims

upon our godly altars

live offerings for appeasement or power.

Death for personal gain.

Yet behind intimate walls

with calculated cruelty

daily

we sacrifice child, partner, parent

upon slabs of self-interest.

Not much different -

‘Death for personal gain.’

………….

Do you even know that you kill?

How you kill? Whom you kill?

Are you willfully blind?

We see you!

Through axiom fingers

pressed to ears, eyes and mouths

We hear. We peek.

Should we speak?

……………………..

Ask the twisting prey –

‘sliced - strangled - bludgeoned - burned’ -

what do you think Love is?

Always the answer is brave, but bookish.

What then is Hate?

No answer.

Honesty is scary, convoluted.

Victims understand dependence.

‘Live offerings for personal power’?

We must speak!

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Comments

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Fri 20th Sep 2013 17:14

Dave, I have never seen this poem before. Thank you for sharing it with me. The ideas do seem to conjoin, and then fly apart. The similarity of vocabulary is a bit shocking. But it's bound to be a fairly common metaphor among people who think about things along certain lines of interest.

Dave Bradley

Wed 18th Sep 2013 21:20

Powerful, Cynthia. For some reason (perhaps you can explain the connection) it made me think of Song of Isaac by Leonard Cohen -

You who build these altars now
To sacrifice these children,
You must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
And you never have been tempted
By a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
Your hatchets blunt and bloody,
You were not there before,
When I lay upon a mountain
And my father's hand was trembling
With the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
Forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can...."

Philipos

Wed 18th Sep 2013 19:55

Axiom - as illustrated by kids who f & blind on mobiles & think it acceptable to do so. I thoroughly enjoyed this poem Cynthia rich with metaphors which have the reader gripped. Although I have to say that man is not alone in his capacity for cruelty, as one commentator suggests.x

Harry O'Neill

Mon 16th Sep 2013 16:36

It`s not what you do, Cynthia, it`s the way that you do it...even this kind of deadly stuff

I particularly like:

`upon slabs of self-interest.`

Isobel

Mon 16th Sep 2013 13:35

Great poem Cynthia - I love the parallels you draw. Man has great capacity for cruelty - sometimes it overwhelms me how accepting of it we all are.

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Metaphor

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