The cruelest month: Food for the flies

I first heard Dunya Mikhail talk about her poetry in an NPR story. That same day, I bought her collection of poems called The War Works Hard, and my National Poetry Month offering for today is the title poem from that book.

Looking back at the stuff I’ve shared this month, five of the poems (six, as of today) are associated with war. (I’m counting “Ulysses”, because—while not about a specific war—it’s in the voice of a crafty old soldier.) That tells you something about me.

I study war, and I take a broad approach to the subject, trying to get an understanding through more than just which battalion was on what hill. Literary works, paintings, photographs, music—that’s how humans apprehend phenomena that are the size of war.

Mikhail is a master poet. Whether she’s writing about a cobbler, a bag of bones or exile, she encompasses huge emotions in a minimum of words. Every one of those words packs tremendous power. Look for yourself.

The War Works Hard

How magnificent the war is!

How eager and efficient!

Early in the morning it wakes up the sirens

and dispatches ambulances to various places

swings corpses through the air

rolls stretchers to the wounded

summons rain from the eyes of mothers

digs into the earth

dislodging many things from under the ruins...

Some are lifeless and glistening

others are pale and still throbbing...

It produces the most questions

in the minds of children

entertains the gods

by shooting fireworks and missiles

into the sky

sows mines in the fields

and reaps punctures and blisters

urges families to emigrate

stands beside the clergymen

as they curse the devil

(poor devil, he remains

with one hand in the searing fire)...

The war continues working, day and night.

It inspires tyrants

to deliver long speeches

awards medals to generals

and themes to poets

it contributes to the industry

of artificial limbs

provides food for flies

adds pages to the history books

achieves equality

between killer and killed

teaches lovers to write letters

accustoms young women to waiting

fills the newspapers

with articles and pictures

builds new houses

for the orphans 

invigorates the coffin makers

gives grave diggers a pat on the back

and paints a smile on the leader's face.

It works with unparalleled diligence!

Yet no one gives it

a word of praise.

Hear Mikhail read some of her poems here. You’ll be doing yourself a mitzvah.