No Martyrs (Poetry) by @TeniolaTJTonade

(Some have suggested that the victims of the Dana plane crash be called martyrs. My reasons for disagreeing.)

NO MARTYRS

They are not martyrs, no, their death
Was void of will.
Nor did they foreknow
Their souls’ arraignment
In the courts of Fire.

Their blood was
Not taken
In sacrificial gourds;
But blackened to soot,
Splattered on scattered stones.

This was no phoenix
In fiery rites
Of self-renewal. No priestly palms
Held the impaling knife. Only
The burning

Of our vice in flight: ill-fitted wings
As Icarus
Reaching to the sun.

And it is a futile loss, I know; bereft
Of truth and justice, as we
Of hearts have been. This raging fire
Will burn out memories
Along with our kin

And passion shall be dead

Till again we count, in stentorian cries
The death of many more
In this self-same fire.

By TONADE TENIOLA
Follow @TeniolaTJTonade

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