Colors in Kosovo

Colors, yellow fragments
falling
Through a gray screen
of life's effusion
Scattering light of a
slow burning candle
Flickering in the shadows
of the altar
Darkened, somber shrine
to dying mothers
And children starving
in the camps
Colors, flashes of brilliant
light
Detonations, screaming
jets
Fear and death
Doom and destiny
in hell's land
Here in an ancient Eastern
place
Cradle of the Orthodox
Ancient shrines and icons
And screeching jets,
cluster bombs
And refugees
Tanks and guns
An ancient story
The thirteenth century
The twentieth century
Same colors -- different props
Same play -- different cast
Fear and fantasy
And the innocent lie dead
Tortured
Fragmented in a myriad
rainbow colors
Like the mosaics in
the old church
Centuries of strife
and confusion
And the blood red
sky reflects
The jet as it
fires its
missiles
At that ancient culture
And the refugees cower
in the shadows of history
Colors in Kosovo
Yellow in the waning sun

June 2, 1999
Michael David Coffey