I won't go (a poem for Srebrenitsa)
Grief never fasts a widow said
prayers have shaped her bones
like the scythe of communism,
she is Srebrenitsa’s flag half mast
blowing at a name she breastfed.
A cleanliness of human darkness
washed in blood eight thousand times.
The tight knit community was splayed
yarned by clay the kalashnikov kiln
made muslim’s terracotta for paradise.
A widow said they resembled waste paper,
scrunched like the face of Milosevic
defiant in his villa where a pool wrinkled the sun.
The authorities came through teeth of glass
he refused to go like widows who kneel
to enclaves of themselves
at graves of themselves.
ANTONY OWEN is from Allesley, Coventry. His first collection of poetry ‘My Father’s Eyes Were Blue,’ was published in May 2009 by Heaventree Press to rave reviews from award winning poets. In June 2009, Owen was selected as part of a poetry collective to travel throughout Ireland and perform at a number of venues. This tour finally ended with a recorded reading at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queens Unversity, Belfast. Owen has been guest reader at several readings throughout the open mic circuit in the UK and is known for his brooding diction and passionate performances. Owen has also been published in Avocado Magazine, Sherb: An Anthology Of River Poems, and in June 2010 will feature poetry in Ava Gardner: Touches of Venus by Gilbert Gigliotti (Entasis Press).
