Quiet Mountain Essays

Copyright © 2005; All Rights Reserved by Author

Requiem for the African Womb
by
Frieda C. Groffy

There is no laughter in the
Ugly bareness of the camps
The air’s coughing up only
Dust, despair
The children don’t play anymore
Too tired - too numb from the
Nagging pain of hunger
They just sit, sit and stare
Wrapped in dirty blankets of fear
Waiting, waiting, for what?
For the dark clad men to come
With the cold eyes and no mercy
To kill and rape, not to plant their seed
But to mutilate the wombs of the women
The little girls, never to become mothers
To erase the future and thus bury it
Into the blood drenched earth
As a forever shame to humankind

For the girls and women of Darfur and
all over the world, innocent victims of violence!

Contributor's Notes...

Ms. Groffy, a Belgian poet/journalist, is a frequent contributor to QME.   The first part of her new book,
Trage Tranen (in Dutch, meaning Slow Tears), is poetry inspired by refugees - people fleeing from
conflicts, war, violence; the second part, called The Years of the Winterwoman, is love poetry wherein the
theme of fleeing is also present.  Ms. Groffy believes we are all, at certain moments of our lives, fleeing from
responsibility, commitment, or something.

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