Beyond fear
by Sylvia Wohlfarth
What does it take to exit the door
struggling with fear and sorrow
and store them in a cloud of anger
and desperation on which you,
one day, may be laid to rest
on your celestial quest for conciliation?
You join the crowds of the brave
and hopeful, praying your words
be heeded and your pleas succeed.
Waving your flags, you fervidly confront
the power-hungry who laid in wait
primed to strike their blitz and roll across
the land flattening people and country.
You, who once tasted the brief joy of freedom
a breath spiked with bombings and death
and a hellish contempt of all human life.
Gather you peoples of suffering nations
kindle your spirits and march and muster
strength and numbers till no longer stumbling
you walk heads held high and with courage
and determination you defy and turn
the blood-drenched tide.
Force with your cries the palaces of intolerance
and cruelty to tumble. Pluck the crumbs
of freedom and hope and glue them together
to create a new and peaceful horizon,
where fearless, the sun will perpetually set and rise.
Many of you will die, young and old.
What desperation is this? Aware that only you
with your sacrifice can be that change,
I ask who am I to demand this from you?
Would I have your courage to die
for the freedom of my country and people?
I cannot pretend I was unaware
and did not care and skipped the pages
to avoid your plight and somber stare.
Humbled at your resistance
I offer spiritual succor from afar
and will accompany you, brave people,
all the way in soul and prayer.
It is a sad and failing world
from which I watch through the fence
those human tragedies unfold
from the safety of a distance,
powerless among the smug
in the face of your despair.
About Sylvia Wohlfarth
Sylvia is a social anthropologist and retired English teacher. She writes poetry, short stories and creative nonfiction themed on social injustice, racism and life in general. Half-Irish, half-Nigerian, and born in Nigeria, she now lives in Ireland after 40 years in Germany. Sylvia is a volunteer mentor at the Cork Migrant Centre. She has published essays and poems in, among others, Our Human Family Weekly (https://www.ohfweekly.org/
Sylvia explains, “I wrote this poem as a reaction to the BBC article on the brave Afghan women standing up to the Taliban and demanding their rights. The situation is getting all the more desperate as Afghanistan is not only facing the world’s most serious humanitarian crisis, but women and girls are being targeted by the Taliban for their education, their ability to work and their activism.”
