The Requiem

I shudder and shut my tear-welled eyes;
In the shrill darkness echo tormenting cries.
Cries that soar from wilted skins, so harrowing;
Their fleshless fingers searching, burrowing,
Past the earth's scorched virgin crust,
Ploughing through the hot, arid dust.
I see cadaverous forms, scattered.
All faith in human compassion shattered.

Manifold limbs envelop the grimy ground.
Amidst haggard bodies emanates one sound-
A child's famished cry, acute, wailing, pleading,
Beseeching its mother's corpse to resume its feeding.
Little one, no more sustenance can your mother provide;
I blush as I see you huddle by death's side.
Your small hands, cupped, for a morsel crave.
To the world's apathy you have fallen slave.

Cancerous hunger, with impunity, scavenges among
Countless withered bodies cast as dung.
Her bristling teeth ravenously gnaw and bite
Dark skeletal forms which can muster no fight.
Her murky shadow she mercilessly casts about,
Enticing the earth's crevices to spew and spout
The carnivorous denizens of the farthest deep,
To gorge on man in his early, eternal sleep.

Voracious mobs over strewn bodies converge.
Their gnashing teeth do furnish the dirge.
Avidly they feast on provisions of human meat
In a land where nought there is to eat!
Beyond the parched horizons, weapons resonate
Burning precious funds at a vicious rate.
The crackling sound of war -immortal,
Do compose the Requiem for man -the mortal.