To The Syrians Yearning to Be Free
By J.C. Salazar
I want to say to you my Syrian friends,
You who are suffering by the millions and dying
By over one-hundred-forty-thousand,
You whose children, entire generations, now
Carry permanent scars and nightmares:
My country, the great U.S. of A., just does not care!
***
I want to say to you my Syrian friends,
You who have fought three martyred years for freedom
Hoping to be the crowning glory of the Arab Spring,
You who in desperation took aid from whence it came,
Thus could not coalesce behind one hero,
The whole world is forsaking you for that!
***
I want to say to you my Syrian friends,
You of the once promising Muslim faith
Who bore so well the modernity of progress,
You who have suffered past forty years of tyranny
And compromised with butchers, oh so much,
Your only hope lies in your battered hearts now!
***
I say all this to you my Syrian friends with a deep sadness
And regret about your devastation,
For if the world remains unmoved by children
Annihilated and the million documents of your destruction,
And you cannot strategize a better message, better army,
Then I am sorry, oh so sorry, that my friends are lost.
***
By Jose C. Salazar
The English professor and Director of the TRIO
HCC, Central Campus. Houston, TX.
June 2014