THE CRY OF THE FAMILY The fall of a sand-castle on the English Coast Can change the nature of the Great Pyramid on the Egyptian Desert The flapping of the butterfly’s wings in the Rain Forest of Florida Can trigger a Tsunami in the Indian Ocean of Indonesia The brutal killing of a 19 year old marine Can change a course of life on the face of the earth for ever Why must he first die and resurrect Before he can pay for school? Is a life not a great price to waste in order to pay for education? Let our eyes run down with tears night and day For our children are plucked from us in their prime In their innocence they die for the Legacy of Violence Bestowed by Ancestors they never know Are not National pride and Religious bigotry the lies for which they die? Are not pigments of the skin the cause for which they are slaughtered? The way to true peace they were never shown. Did not the adamant Pharaoh arise in the night? To weep for his first born son Did King David not cry for Absalom, a rebellious son? Did not Jesus weep for Lazarus, his best friend on earth? Did the mothers in Jerusalem not weep for Jesus as he hung on the cross? From Ohio to Tennessee, From New York to Oklahoma From England (London) to Spain (Madrid) From Afghanistan to Iraq, From Sudan to Liberia From Palestine to Israel, from one End of the Earth to the Other What I hear is the Cry of the Family Whether or not they say “fest” or “furst” for “first.” Yet the apache kept on flying, spitting fire from the sky instead of rain Yet the home-made bomb, keep shredding human beings as waste papers The mothers beat their chests in sorrows but for fun The fathers slam their hands and feet on the grounds in vain They cannot muffle the barrel not stop the mortar Families erect crosses upon crosses; memorials for the innocents adorn the plains We have come over a way that with tears have been watered We have come treading our way through the blood of the slaughtered Why must nations be born in violence? Why must our sacred stories be told in human sacrifices? Who is that god that receives these sacrifices? Is not he the idol of wickedness venerated by the myth of violence? Let the families cry the more, Let them cry night and day without stopping The Cry of the Family Rev. Titus K. Oyeyemi (Hilton Washington DC; August 20, 2005)