Killing Field Memorial

                                   Choeung Ek, Cambodia

Ghosts hover here,

haunt the tower of 5,000 skulls,

the field of bone fragments,

the pieces of blue cloth,

poking from bare ground.

They rise from unmarked graves

of teachers and shopkeepers

dragged from their work,

housewives shot on the street.

They mourn for the monks

murdered mid-chant,

the girls who were raped,

the boys badly beaten,

every toddler killed,

terrified and confused.

In this place, guides murmur lessons

of history and hope—

We can learn from the past,

perhaps.          Better to be kind

than kill.          Never repeat

those mistakes.

Yet the warm breeze gathers

these spirits and sighs, blows

over the seas to Congo, Sudan,

Myanmar and back to us.

It touches our brows,

our silence,

our grief.