Heya,
This text kinda emerged from somewhere when I was pondering the events around the downing of flight MH17 and the flying out of the bodies of the people that had been killed in the event. I wrote it because it wanted to be written. First in Dutch, then in German and now in English. If one thing should stand out, I hope it’s the desire, the necessity for all wars, and the immense suffering they cause, to end. Where ever on earth they take place and for whatever cause: they mainly cause unimaginable human suffering. It’s time we learn to see we share this home together. And that our joint efforts should be aimed at making this truly a home. For all of us. Please read the text and let me know what you think.
You’re back home again
You’re back home again
And that makes me happy.
Yes, indeed, happy.
A foreign emotion amidst incessant
Powerlessness. Anger. Disbelief. Grief.
Above all grief.
Despair.
Void.
You’re back home again.
I wanted to ask you how it was.
But it’s all so different now.
Share with me how you remember your last moment in this life.
I want to comfort you, take you in my arms, caress you, hold you against my heart and whisper that all is fine.
But I can’t do that.
You’re back home again.
And at last we are permeated again by the senselessness of war.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a shot from a machinegun.
A machete.
A bomb.
The broken glass in the hand of a drunken idiot.
Or a missile.
It doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t bring any good.
You’re back home again.
Back home again after an unexpectedly long journey.
Finally back home after you had to wait so long.
Caught in a game played by scared pawns of power.
Left under the mercilessly scorching sun in a field far from here.
Robbed of the last dignity that was yours.
You’re back home again.
See all of those, who have come to greet you.
See all of those, who stand around you.
Perplexed.
United
For a moment.
You’re back home again.
And I see the infinite void in our heart.
#MH17
Geert Hofman
Geert Hofman 