All Comments on 'My son'

of Libya with this (though part of me wonders if it's inspired by Japan) ... the why to that is it has a beating of the breast and hands to the sky/allah/the world's media feel to it, the very public displaying of grief we associate more with the middle east and less with the far eastern nations.

btw, you've a typo L7 - to/too

I like

see this mother, bereft

with aching breasts,

I got an image of Japan, universal, this horror. My nightmare is to hear my son calling for me, trapped in rubble. Recurring. Can't imagine anything more terrible. Nice work capturing this.

I too had a vivd recollection of the recent tsunami in Japan, but I also think the poem speaks just as well as the suffering in war at the most fundamental level. Nicely done.

I think the poems starts very strongly as a plea from a mother. I think the poem would have been better if you kept on this tak but you then start to describe such as.....

lost now in a maelstrom

to terrible to comprehend

But if you kept speaking in the role of the mother as you did in the beginning and ended with this...

I recoil in horror

I am a mother, bereft

with aching breasts,

he once filled

my heart with joy.

Just an idea.

Strangely it conjures up so many diverse nightmares. Nicely done Annie.

Tess + 5