Colombo, Human Rights, Human Security, International, Peace and Conflict, Poetry, Politics and Governance, Vavuniya, War Crimes

Howling

What shall I do, living
in Peru, with this report
of systemic failure

in U.N. monitoring
in Sri Lanka, how
bureaucrats drove away

from the disaster to come,
buried hard- earned stats
about civilian deaths

and allowed themselves
to be brow-beaten,
harassed, shouted

into silence while
40,000 humans
died , mostly from

battering shells rained
from fighter jets?
I belong to the family

of nations. I have
a vote in one
democracy,

dream of serving
humanity,
in the Secretariat

of the United Nations.
of inside influence,
reform within, extracting

the worm, of keeping
a job close to the Secretary
General, speaking

into his ear, saying
fix your flank, Man.
Souls are howling.