Međugorje, scam of the Century

[Colm Roe]

Erosion created the pits.
Soft stone lays down to it,
across the border
the Adriatic's gentle touch
advances toward 
the bones and skulls, Tito
tried to hide.

Strange how we use words like 'soft',
many decades ago I touched Yugoslavia's coast.
It tore my foot so bad
I limped for the entire holiday.
Limestone feels hard, but
carved by the right hand, isn't sharp
just a sensual feast-
a celebration.

Nature can't help itself,
my flesh was designed to operate 
within limits,
even paper cuts it.

Saws, hoes, hammers and knives
or just a push
dropped an entire village
into that pit. 
Foresters and farmers 
dispatched by their own tools,
flesh eroding flesh
and all the while
the Vatican said yes,
Catholic priests, from the pulpits, said yes, yes!
and further North, in Jasenovac
three Franciscan monks
in one night
murdered 3,000 for a bet, occasionally
removing ears, noses, eyes.
'Serb Killer' blades
ripped throats, the blood lust sending one
into 'seventh Heaven'.

Time passed.
The bones were exhumed,
a memorial built 
but the words were still sharp
and a bomb 
murdered them again.

Mary appeared, up the hill from the pit, but
not a word about it
Hotels and millions in hard cash 
continue to enrich the descendants,
who disgusted even the Nazis.

Eroding the wrong words
can remove pits, and
right words can be sharp, but
what happened there has been hidden,
the horrors so horrific 
and so recent
I'll never find any words. 
All I can say is this...remember Jasenovac. 

Apols for the prosiness here. I watched a doc about the 1990's Bosnian war and wondered what happened before it. Then discovered what Croatia did to the Serbs in WW2. 

https://mightynose.wordpress.com/2018/0 ... ilgrimage/

[TrevorConway]

Hi Colm, 

I think the prosiness works relatively well. It's the length in connection with the tone that drags things back a bit, for me. I'd consider streamlining things a bit. Cut the first verse and reduce the 4th, 6th and 7th, I'd say.  

Cheers for sharing,

Trev

[indar]

Colm, I have read and reread this, looked at your link, gone on to read more. I'm stunned. Will revisit after I collect my thoughts.

[Colm Roe]

Thanks, Trev and LInda.
I've been researching what happened there for the last week or two. The barbarity is beyond belief. I'm also stunned by the fact that the events aren't common knowledge! It appears (pardon the pun) the apparitions in Medugorje were designed (40 years later) by a Croat priest to thwart any Serb attempt to create a shrine/place of remembrance for their dead. The reference in the poem to dying twice is about one of the pits being opened and the bones were placed (I think) in a nearby Orthodox church...the Croats blew it up! 
Linda, this is the Church and State at its worst, the perfect storm. From pulpits priests were telling their congregations that it's ok to murder Serb children. I read one incident where a Croat went to a priest looking for absolution for killing Serbs, he was sent away with this 'It's too early, come back when they're all dead'.
Wikipedia in Croatia calls Jasenovac a 'collection camp', not a concentration camp. It was a collection of camps, not just one. So maybe that was a typo...not! Where is the truth? How many were murdered? The Croats say only a few thousand, the 3,000 killed in one night seems to be true. And the camp/s operated for 4/5 years, so I'd be more inclined to believe it's many hundreds of thousands. Not to mention all the people across the country slaughtered in their homes, villages, fields.
Many Muslims were involved with the Ustaše. Even after all I've read, I can't excuse what the Serbs did in Kosovo and other places, but it certainly puts it in a different context. I also read that some German battalions stationed there requested to be sent to the Russian front; gives you a good idea of how bad things were. 
My poem is piss-poor, doesn't even begin to express my thoughts. I keep thinking 'in this case, there really are no words', but I'll have to try. 
You have to delve deep to find images of the atrocities, there is a one hour video on YouTube, very low definition; which is probably a good thing. 
Anywho, the sooner we remove religion the better. It'll be a start. Would be good to remove borders...no, too difficult. Better to maintain united states; stay United, Linda. The alternative is Balkan    

[Eric Ashford]

Ghastly times.
A very strong and vivid write.
I hope the unkrainian conflict does not end up like that
but human nature at war will always let you down.
Excellence.

[indar]

Pro-Trump Pastor Ahead Of D.C. Visit: ‘You Ain't Seen' An Insurrection Yet | Watch (msn.com)

A significant percentage of the alt right in this country are buying into Qanon conspiracies claiming that democrats are pedophiles, they drink baby's blood and worship satan. 

It's enough to make me afraid to put out lawn signs during the election.

Fear the church.

It's nothing new.

Of course it'll never get as bad as the conflict in your poem---right?

[Gyppo]

Religion, of all flavours, is so often the cloak worn by man's inhumanity towards man.  Once we start seeing people as things, rather than people, all the good stuff fades away.

Then there are those who say "The Devil made me do it."  How handy, having an external anthropomorphised innately malevolent force to blame.  I suspect Mankind has never needed a devil, but they created him to explain the darker urges.

If you've never heard it before, listen to 'The Devil Wore  A Crucifix', but listen all the way though.  I first heard this song when I was about fourteen and it's haunted me ever since.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMkr754WjuQ

Gyppo



 

[Colm Roe]

Pro-Trump Pastor Ahead Of D.C. Visit: ‘You Ain't Seen' An Insurrection Yet | Watch (msn.com)

A significant percentage of the alt right in this country are buying into Qanon conspiracies claiming that democrats are pedophiles, they drink baby's blood and worship satan. 

It's enough to make me afraid to put out lawn signs during the election.

Fear the church.

It's nothing new.

Of course it'll never get as bad as the conflict in your poem---right?

That preacher is on fire 
When I hear the congregation's reactions I can easily imagine him leading them out to begin the slaughter...seriously! If he said 'Go get your guns/knives, we're gonna kill some Democrats right now!' they'd do it. 
He's drunk on power. Knows how to become famous/rich, how to manipulate the sheeple; history has provided the instructions. And there'll always be cunts like him with no regard for anyone. So yes, I can see two options for the US. Allow them to exist and destroy the united states, or follow China's example...extreme force/restrictions. A temporary one-party government might calm things down. 
If the extreme division between the two is allowed to continue, and I hate to say it, but you're fucked. 
With two, you are only one away from a dictatorship. 
 

[indar]

It's a catch 22, Colm,

Here's the problem: if the good guys (Us/We) get aggressive enough to knock out the bad guys (They/Them) how are We different from Them?

It's an age-old dilemma.

I know you know that. But I confess, on my really angry days I fantasize the old pitch forks and torches scenario.

[AlienFlower]

Powerful poem, Colm, and powerful song, Gyppo. 

Jackie