A battered head,
a bleeding brow,
washed in silence.
This is a prayer
for the victims
of ignorant violence.

You don't know when it started,
you began feeling half-hearted.
The peace within is broken,
you want speak but your choking.
And you can't let it go,
never be unspoken.
Often you're left in stitches,
yet your soul is worth untold riches.

A dusty street,
where the children meet
that have no alliance.
This is a prayer
for the sufferers
of ignorant violence.

One day they're safe, then they're not,
wars are not what we sought.
Explosions only leave what you believe,
while the helpless mothers grieve,
crying for help from God.
The angels aren't coming,
their sounds are leading to nothing.

This is a prayer
for the shattered vagabonds.

Dear sister

Why do you stay?

Through your suffering?

Through your pain?

he's marked the flesh

I see the shame

If only you'd speak the truth.

Give in his name

Dear sister

You know, I love you dear

Iv tried to keep you close

Though you shrink back in fear.

Dear sister

You know, he won't stop

You say that he loves you

Yet, the bruises say more

Dear sister

Show no fear

Please have strength

Leave before death appears

Dear Father
Just because I am a girl doesn't mean I'm not human like you
I am and special, maybe more special than you
so first stop calling me names because I'm subject to my emotions
first work and buy me the necessities, the sanitary pads
before arguments about whether I smell during my periods spring
first change the system,that which promotes my rights bring
first abandon alcohol for it's the reason for the violence and fights
first realise that I am my own person with my own dreams
for we all can't be doctors, we all can't be engineers,
we all can't flow with the streams
first realise I hope to be first female President of this pearl
first recognise that time and again my hair may need a little curl
first remind my Aunt to give me the *** education
after all educating me is educating a nation
first treat mother like a human and not a slave
first think like a man and act like a woman rather than a tsunami wave
first mind about how I'm relating with my school teacher
because now is the bridge that leads to my long awaited future
first help sort out the political climate, it is too hot
Help the country be what it should be instead of expecting me to be who I'm not
first tell the insurgents and the government to put down arms
for it seems they cannot see how terribly this war thing harms
they can't see I'm ***** and bearing sceptic wounds which may never scar
first tell the fat belly friend of yours that
when I'm through with my studies I'll afford my own car
first urge the concerned to put up good schools near
so that I won't have to ride this far in the dark filled with fear
first engage in advising my school to provide us with meals
it will mean you finally understand that hunger kills
first work your fingers to the bone, don't leave it for mother alone
to provide the privilege of waking to comfortable beddings at dawn
first start believing in me as you believe in my brothers
rather than wallow in the mistakes of the forefathers
first understand me before you start pointing fingers
first get me a treated mosquito net and shoes to escape the jiggers
first do your part and I promise I will do mine
first be a father & friend then, I know everything will be fine

I feel my outsides crack.
"Please-" I beg. "I take it back."
A set of white teeth glisten.
Bad words, mad words, I still listen.

With your fingers you paint me purple and blue.
Each spot a slightly different hue.
Then in front of others I wear a mask.
"I'm clumsy" - I tell those who ask.

You are all bark- yet you bite.
I shiver in fright.

You tell me I'm small.
What am I to you, a nut?
Mr. Nutcracker.

What were you thinking as you pushed those trolleys through Zaventem?
Were you calculating how many minutes, seconds you had left
Was every surreal detail amplified
The incessant rumble of a suitcase wheel
The bright pink silk in a stewardess’s blouse?

What were you thinking as your eyes rested on the family at check-in?
Were you wondering which of them would live or die
The excited young girl in a blue corduroy dress
her ribbon slipping down the shiny braid of hair
Or her smiling father, hand resting gently on his wife’s waist?

What were you thinking as the time drew nearer?
Were you remembering the taste of your last breakfast
The flaky pieces of pastry
cascading onto your plate like exploded tiles
Or that final swallow of hot sweet tea?

What were you thinking?

Or were you cold-hearted
Deciding where to stand
to inflict maximum carnage?
Thinking only of the brothers
who would whisper your name with reverence?

Tell me.
What on earth were you thinking?

silhouettes running down brick walls like

flashfloods clinging to ***** mascara
where starstruck children run in mud
call me the eve of original sin
for the things I have seen and the places I've been

for ridges of ink etched in landscapes of skin
for heartbeats in hoodies saying lest we forget

in the valley of the shadow of death
they rest with hands crossed over their chests

I know the stories that you tell
I have them memorized so well
I take you at face value
Every time
You're everything I want
You're nothing I could hate
Hope you don't hesitate
Will you be mine?

I see the electric sunshine
I see the electric sunshine
I see the electric sunshine
In your eyes

It's nothing but a bruise
It doesn't mean abuse
It's just a disagreement
I'll be fine
He still loves me the same
He tells me it's okay
He knows just what to say
Every time

I see the electric sunshine
The mask you hide behind
I see the electric sunshine
In your eyes

I know the stories that you tell
I know they're just pathetic spells
You thought I'd fall for it
Every time
You're no longer what I want
You're everything I've come to hate
Now your gone for good and I know
I'll be fine

I saw the sunshine in your eyes
The light you flipped on with a switch
And when it turned out to be lies
I turned into a *****
And I cut the cord to the ties that bound
I'm happy without electric sunshine now
I've seen the light without you
*I let it shine

I leave them behind, staring straight ahead despite their pleas. The starry night beckons me. It promises to set me free, so I leave. Cries of anguish echo in the nether realms, part past part hell, where the darkness instills itself.
Nighttime brings terrible dreams, but daylight is where true nightmares come from. My boots disturb the grey cement kicking up clouds of dust. Smoke obscures the empty spaces where ****** faces once laid. Scarred flesh painted red with life’s fluid.  Blood oozes and drips down the now cooling skin, then flows forming a small red river with tiny tributaries. All this is captured in a greyscale distortion.
I missed the moments of violent percussions. The sounds of man-made thunder crashing and smashing everything in sight. I was only here for the aftermath. Still, that is enough. Dark blue body bags hold the terror of two twins decimated. Gaping wounds appear as if something had been chewing itself free from their stomachs. Normal skin rolls into mangled and exposed muscle then becomes bone. What a sick alchemy of flesh.
Their faces follow the same empty stare. They almost look alive. Eyes open in accusation, pointing in a parallel direction. I can feel the full force of their claims as they silently scream “Why.”
I cry, but my tears come just upon the edge of numbness.  Anger, and sorrow so extreme that my mind cannot handle it. I disappear, pretending that these are merely photos. I immerse myself in the delusion that this is a thing of the past. I am not here. They are not there. With a digital click, the camera becomes my emotional filter.
I stumble, a step away from losing what is left of my sanity, then cross the threshold in reverse, till I am outside. A small woman cradles something in her arms. It is a charcoal baby doll. Tears streaming the woman screams, holding that incinerated thing, but it’s just a doll. Black flakes fall, baby doll’s clothing turns to dust. I cough it in and out choking on the musk. I am grateful that it is just a broken doll.
I feel fear bringing me to edge of insanity. Her screaming seems strange. Her eyes look deranged. The doll’s legs have little calcium protrusions. Do burnt bones blacken? It’s just a doll. Scorched porcelain doesn’t look like skin, but it’s just a doll. Please let it be just a doll.
I pull myself from the situation. Detach what is left of my impartiality from my sanity. This is just a picture. This is just a job. Auto pilot takes over as I keep clicking photos, leaving any sense of self in the past.

And do you feel more like a man
When you strike her beautiful cheek
With your hand wide open, leaving a mark
That turns bright red instantly, and will soon
Turn into just one of the many other bruises
She has to cover up with makeup, it's a struggle
Every morning, the more bruises you give her
The earlier she has to wake up so she has
Time to cover them all before she makes you breakfast
For if it's not at the right time, another bruise will find its
Way onto her lovely body, you leave them all over her
Her face, neck, hips, wrists, and even legs,
Do you really even see what you are doing?
Have you noticed how the light in her eyes
Has vanished ever since the bruises started
Appearing. “You know I love you right?” You say
After each time, shes starting to believe it less and less
And I cant wait for the day when she's brave enough to
Leave you, you are a disease, infecting every single
Part of her being, and she deserves so much better than you
She should be put on a the biggest pedestal, and you are
Incapable of doing that. I can't wait for the day when she leaves you
So tell me, do you still feel like a man?