tisiwoota

“On mission along the border of Chad and Darfur, Human Rights Watch researchers gave children notebooks and crayons to keep them occupied while they spoke with the children’s parents. Without any instruction or guidance, the children drew scenes from their experiences of the war in Darfur: The attacks by the Janjaweed, the bombings by Sudanese government forces, the shootings, the burning of entire villages, and the flight to Chad..”

It’s a delicate line, but I think the site succeeds in using the work to humanize rather than sensationalize or exploit.

Each drawing is accompanied by the child’s explanation.

Nur, Age 9

Nur: This is my brother. He is hiding in Sudan. He is not happy.
Human Rights Watch: Why?
Nur: He wants to learn, to go to school, but he has nothing. Our school was burned.

Mahmoud, Age 13

Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: These men in green are taking the women and the girls.
Human Rights Watch: What are they doing?
Mahmoud: They are forcing them to be wife.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: The houses are on fire.
Human Rights Watch: What’s happening here?
Mahmoud: This is an Antonov. This is a helicopter. These here, at the bottom of the page, these are dead people.

SaveDarfur
(more…)

Because cowards attack
by committee
and others kill with bullets
while some numb by numbers
bleeding the body and the language
of a child . . .

Who would behold the colorings of a cloud
and legislate its shadows
legislate its shine?

Or confront a cataract of rain
and seek to interdict its speed
and suffocate its sound?
(more…)

Snow knuckles melted to pearls
of black water
Face like a landslide of stars
in the dark

Icicles plunging to waken the grave
Tree berries purple and bitten
by birds

Curves of horizon squeezeon the sky
Telephone wires glide
down the moon

Outlines of space later
pieces of land
with names like Beirut
where the game is to tear
up the whole Hemisphere

into pieces of children
and patches of Sand

Asleep on a pillow the two
of us whisper we know
about apples and hot bread
and honey

Hunting for safety and eager for peace
we follow the leaders who chew up
the land
with names like Beirut
where the game is to tear
up the whole Hemisphere
into pieces of children
and patches of sand

I’m standing in place
I’m holding your hand
and pieces of children
on patches of sand