Drowned by a Tear

Clasping you tenderly
In my hands
Before you faded 
Completely
I saw the aphid
In your heart
Siphoning your last juices –
Before you perished
Entirely
And in an act of defiance
A tear from my eye
Drowned the parasite
Within



                                    Berlin, Nov 2003


At a local level this is a poem about illness taking hold of a beloved person
and the helplessness that the friend, lover, member of the family feels as
he/she sees the person being ravaged by it. At a global level it’s the 
illness or destructive seed and destructive forces at the heart of a beloved 
country or continent such as Africa