By Deng de Monychol Lueth
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It smells the same
Even across the seas.
See the agony across the Nile,
Or the outrage raging in Greater Upper Nile,
And the bereavement in diaspora.
It is the killing machine!
—-
Whether in 1980s or in 1990s,
Or in the Juba shock of 2013,
History cannot deny it.
It is the killing machine!
In all chaos and confusion that it breeds,
The innocents’ innocence is speared
In the flames of hatred.
What can we achieve when we’re lustful and untrustworthy?
—-
Here lives lie burnt and destroyed
In a most cruel moral-numbness
Of the battlefields,
From Juba to Bor,
Akobo and Bentiu,
Gadiang, Duk and Baliet,
Malakal and Renk,
Mayom, Leer and Nasir.
It is the killing machine!
—-
In this melting pot,
The atmosphere is filled and guided
By the interests and fears
Of the oldies in pollies
Who employ the killing machine
For one reason or another
As their differences and quarrels take shape.
—–
Political differences and leadership duel cause
The political-in-tribal strife thrice.
Desertion in the army and another day of grief.
It is the killing machine!
Each time it is used,
The land becomes the valley of deaths and sorrow.
As fault line lengthens, sectarianism rules.
A disaster sets in; for here,
Violent killing is responded with vengeance in kind.
—–
With its usage, bullets fly.
In its absence, peace rebounds
Its legacy is bloodbath and shame,
Peace in talks and another ceasefire,
But nothing ceases the burning fire.
—–
It is Sudd Fire, the killing machine!
The tendency to divide and devine
Communities against communities,
Neighbours against neighbours,
Brothers against brothers,
Sisters against sisters
In order to instill fears and spread tears
Under the shadows of war
While gaining from pain
In the contest and conquest of power and positions.
—–
Like a venom, sudd fire is dangerous.
It kills.
It burns.
It displaces.
It destroys.
It spills fresh, innocent, youthful bloods in vain.
It is the strategy of destruction.
—–
It is a barrier and a setback,
The most greatest peril of development.
Make it not to fire, because whenever it’s fired,
Silencing and solving issues by fire,
The future of generations is placed in the danger of another fire.
For it is Sudd fire – the strategy of destruction.
—–
Deng© 2014 [May 18]