Poems
MARLA RUZICKA
12/31/1976 – 4/16/2005
Founder: Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
spread the word
it will be what we make it
For Adrienne Rich
sparks ratchet from the tinder
crackle from the racket of fire and light and are gone
tireless, fearless
against generals, bureaucrats, politicians
her skull touching skull
hem of her black abaya clenched in her fist
set on the shoulder of the unveiled woman in hijab
who buttresses the dark-eyed, moon-eyed child
corpuscles hiss from the splutter
flare from the pyre drafts
motes rocket, incandesce, and are lost
flecks tick from the holocausts
ingénue face-splitting smile
Buddha-girl California smile
petite with curly blonde tresses
pretty, peppy, fiery, vivacious
nicknamed Bubbles in Kabul
immolated by a God car on the Baghdad airport road
her last outcry: “I’m alive”
•
no invader grieved at any funeral or house
no envoy offered help or remorse
from mutilated torso to torso
blogs mocking her even as martyr
Rock Creek Park Rollerblade Queen, Cluster Bomb Girl
spitfire, hurricane, love bomb
manic, anorexic, insomnial
fortified by parties and red wine
avatar of the tendered nipples of Ishtar
registrar of the mutes of the underworld
gladiator of the courage of the vulnerable
novice of no past at the boundary of history
saint of the collateral orphans
paladin weeping for a metal planet
nova emptying its burden of souls
stranger arousing the genital wind
auric-haired bride Marla
wrapped in the black abaya
like the dawn blistering past blood beyond the background
2011 (10/13); 2012 (1/30); 2013 (9/12); 2014 (4/8)
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Prior version: Big Bridge (2008)[www.bigbridge.org].
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Prior version: Big Bridge(2008)[www.bigbridge.org].