Dear Editor,

In respect of the tragedy which occurred in New Zealand last Friday, I offer my sympathy to all those who are suffering. They should know that the positive citizens of this world are with them, if even in spirit, at this time. Thus:

New Zealand is crying.

We are crying too.

Man’s inhumanity to man has prompted gasps

And not just from a few.

Rage and torment were companions.

One courted head; one stalked the heart.

The tool, the gun, still shocked, pleads innocence

Against a culpable upstart!

Righteous zeal! Acute intolerance! An awful zest for blood!

A fixation with omnipotence

Came from a dim-wit, playing God!

But, hush, New Zealand;

Gentle hush to all those numb, through pain.

The hands that made the nauseous spills

Will be made to clean the stains.

In the conscious space of sanctity

Two mosques shiver; not from cold.

They are making supplication

On behalf of those who mourn.

Enlightened, they’ll beg forgiveness

For the ‘egregious mold’

Who must, eventually seek contrition

On his very own!

The grounded, tailless, kiwi

With its beak at its nostrils end

Will remember a Friday in history

When absurdity ‘saw red’;

Leaving, at least, upon first count,

Forty-nine worshippers dead!

Miserere Domine!

Have mercy, Lord!

Erica Brown Marriott

piapam2014@gmail.com