torture song

listen

can you hear it pull
the wires and plugs
out of our ear sockets

can you feel it
cut through
our waxed delusions

a ragged scream
pouring like hot oil
inside and around
our blistering spirits

someone is screaming

right now
at this moment

can’t you
hear the screams
coming from that man

the one who is
across the world
and yet next door

his screams burn through
dark-hooded thick-walled
iron-bolted citadels

and when he screams
he is alone

except for the one
who beats him

shackled and alone

except for the one
who watches him get beaten

tortured and alone

except for us
who can hear him
underneath the news reports
in a corner of our memory

someone is screaming

right now
at this moment

we can hear him weeping
and begging and praying

until he is stilled
and another takes his place
and another joins in
and another until
the dissonant chords
of their knotted howl
begin to strangle us

or maybe it is not
those screams we are hearing
maybe it is a mother
screaming as her son
is dragged away from her

or maybe it is his children
their waking and sleeping hours both
wearing the same nightmare face

what I know for sure is
someone is screaming
right now

at this moment
some one is being
tortured and reviled
in the name of a country
or in the name of a god
or in the name of you or me

someone is screaming

and if it is not us
yelling back
calling out
if it is not you
if it is not me
screaming stop
screaming no more

screaming louder and louder
until we are heard
until we have stopped
this torture song

who will be left
to hear
to listen

i know you can hear it
we all can hear it

we can cover our ears
or turn the music up higher
but the screams will not go away
until we stop them

someone is screaming

right now
at this moment
hear them

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