ROUND AND ROUND By Axel Conradi (a poem)

Axel Conradi

ROUND AND ROUND

Why do I force you to residential schools
for holding to myths not my own?
Why do I jail you in re-education camps
for calling Urumqi and Mecca home?

Why do I shackle my neighbour
never again to be loose?
Why do I choke him with my knee
as if it were a noose?

Why do I herd you onto trains
to places with Polish names?
Why do I prostitute for “comfort”
deny it and not take blame?

Why must I label you Infidel
if I answer the muezzin’s call?
Why must I seize the land of Jordan
by keening at the Western Wall?

Why do I rampage on Shiva’s behalf
if rumours have fouled my well?
Why must my Trinity be The Answer
and others be doomed to Hell?

Why do I travel down a road
of endless dead-end streets?
Why do I march round and round
when my heart knows where to meet?

By: Axel Conradi