It’s been over a month
Since I’ve returned,
Yet this feeling is still lodged
In my heart where it burns.
Holiday blues lasting just days
Seems the price that others paid,
But I still suffer in a daze
Of angry pain that doesn’t fade.
Anger at the many lies of why
This land lies torn in two,
Why it’s people suffered and died
And thousands their love-ones lose.
Pain at the static status-quo,
Year after year of betrayed hope.
Anger again at the sly acquiescence
Of a world indifferent to Turkish aggression.
Sick to my soul, beyond consolation,
A dreadful mix of despair and desolation.
Difficult emotions to contain and cage,
But knowledge of injustice demands Pain & Rage.
This was written after my return from a summer holiday, where despite the Island’s intoxicating beauty, the legacy of the events of 1974, (ruined churches, border guards, refugees, deserted villages, etc..), deeply depressed me, as these grim reminders would to anybody acquainted with the betrayal of Cyprus and it’s people.
I feel especially in light of the Gulf War, in which Turkey masquerades as the champion of the small and weak against the strong aggressor, it is right to be reminded of her continuous illegal occupation of a third of Cyprus in direct contravention of over seventy United Nations Resolutions.
