I go to protests / I find others who see the same things I do, and I cling to them / I find others who choose not to see
Poetry | Carrianne Leung
During the Genocide (A list)
I try to find language
I read histories of occupation and land theft
I post things on social media
I am challenged
I receive threats
I am told that I am being watched
I read some more
I go to protests
I find others who see the same things I do, and I cling to them
I find others who choose not to see
I am bewildered that it’s a choice to not see
I have nightmares
I have been lied to by people appointed to tell the truth
I have been betrayed and so have you
I watch the world become reconfigured
I watch power reveal its true faces
I witnessed
I witness
I find out there are other genocides happening simultaneously to my regular life
I do the groceries, the laundry, feed my kid, walk the dog, go to work
I see pictures of children without heads, limbs, bodies tore apart
I do more laundry
I have more nightmares
I am a coward and sometimes, I try to be brave
I post more on social media
I go to more protests
I talk to people who say nothing about this hell on earth and so I don’t mention it either, but I still feel the flames and wonder why they can’t
I can’t stop thinking about Hind
I become afraid that I will forget Hind and all of them
I discover that the price of living in these times is amnesia
I am not living
I no longer know how to be human
I no longer know how to talk to you.
Carrianne Leung is a fiction writer and educator. Her books include the Wondrous Woo and That Time I Loved You which was awarded the Danuta Gleed Literary Award 2019. She is currently working on a new novel, titled The After.Â
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