The Eagle’s View
The aquiline eye divines all;
The wings slice the sibilant space.
Far below, fighters fall:
A man slays a child of different race.
Above the storm the eagle glides.
He sees the man, he sees the child.
He sees the rot of their insides.
He sees a land and sky defiled.
He floats, caressed by currents warm.
The sensuous sun strokes his back.
He is not touched by terrestrial storm;
imperiously indifferent, he fears no attack.
Muslim kills Christian; Israelis advance.
Oil, like cancer, seeps throughout.
Afro child’s misery, extinct elephants.
Disease and penury; divorced and devout.
But above the tumult, far from the din,
With only a whisper of soughing breeze,
He is sovereign, he is in
command of his life, he knows no unease.
God help him!
MARK GREENLAND