by Jocelyn Ajami
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AI-generated graphic by Shutterstock for The New Verse News. |
After Francesca Albanese’s U.N. report on
“Genocide as Colonial Erasure”
“Genocide as Colonial Erasure”
a poem’s lines ripple
like ridges of ancient sands
like ridges of ancient sands
couplets ring fervent notes
a distant hand intrudes
unfamiliar chimes
the new timbre
incongruent to the tone
it clips the old refrains
although the verse lingers
it is never free
the fitful hand scrubs lines
slowly mutilating the structure
gobbling vowels and vows
nothing satisfies its lust
the poem still has claws
but no wings
clinging to its soil
when battered lines shrill
against white space, the hand races
to delete remaining words
and proclaim erasure
a blank page all its own
Jocelyn Ajami is an award winning painter, filmmaker and poet. Jocelyn has received several awards for her films, Oasis of Peace, Gypsy Heart and Queen of the Gypsies. She turned to writing poetry in 2014 as a way of connecting more intimately with issues of social conscience and cultural awareness. She has been published in several anthologies of prize winning poems. Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, she speaks five languages and lives in Chicago, Illinois.
