A petal on the stream

This is a candle for those who died

without flames and flowers by the roadside

anonymous, just long smears of blood,

just shattered bones fallen on the mud

and not even one column inch worldwide.

This is a petal on the stream, offered

for those silent voices no longer heard;

those who fell in and yet, sank like stone

and no-one came in search or to mourn

and the world just rushed past without a word.

This cannot be a poem, we have no rhymes

that can sum the injustices of our times -

it's just a pair of hands to cup the last sighs

of those forced to stop breathing; otherwise

no lines can bring themselves to describe the crimes.