Mali slides through my speakers
like a desert snake tonguing my ears,
that word close to what I named
a doll once, and another name:
Malia–the name my mother wanted to call me
but didn’t for reasons in 1966
that carry no weight now,
but I still feel kinship
to that sound
similar to my almost-name.
Regardless. I digress,
chasing paths of memory the second
I hear the country on the radio
while I read of Konna
where burned-out tanks and broken guns
litter the fish market. Pay attention,
woman in New York,
women everywhere,
because the indigo people
and other jihadists would love to change
your flag, just like they supplant
green, yellow, and red
with white paper,
fluttered up that pole
for all to read:
Assembly for the Spiritual Ideology
to Purify the African World
bordered by machine guns.
This western woman
knows little of jihad,
but nothing in this war
seems holy, over-running
the already converted.
This is no lesser jihad,
mujahideen turned outwards
against other mujahideen
their cracked sixth pillar
holding nothing up
but hunger for more.
Susan Daniels Poetry 
dang, nice journey in this…as the music brings out different memories…your name, that is a cool connection and then into the poignant present of what is going on in the world around us…nice warning…and tension you create there…purification, some scary history around that as well..
Thanks, Brian. Oh, it scares the hell out of me.
Well done Susan
Thanks, Boomie. Scary stuff happening.
oh i’m glad that you write about this.. yeah..it’s all wrong and i hope they get things under control over there…it seems far away but it affects us as well..really good write…
Thanks, Claudia. It is horribly wrong, and not as far away as we think it is. The world seems to get smaller every day.
Nice to know your almost name ~ Ah, the war is closer than we think ~ If we ignore it, one day we will wake up and find its in our soil ~
Yes, we will.
Bravo! Susan Daniels.
Thank you.
I agree – their war is only a mutated form of the same virus that is clawing at our own front doors. Well blogged Susan.
Thanks, Mike–I agree.
Wow. You write beautifully. Your words really spill from your heart. I like the passion in this, the warning and the caring. Very, very well done.
Myrna, thank you
Mali is this week’s news – and maybe next week’s too – but the media moguls will soon find themselves fascinated by something else, somewhere else and then almost everyone will forget. Your poem will help to remind some people – and that’s a good thing 🙂
Thanks, Tony. I hope so.
Susan, you really are on top of the news here with this poem! Well written and frightening indeed.
Thanks, Mary. It is scary.
Oh Susan, I love this. Impressive and very well said
Celestine, thank you. I heard one story on the radio a few days ago, and read a story in the Times today–had to do it.
Been following the news and I feel such a deep sadness inside me. Will it ever end?
Yes, someday it will. I have to have faith in that. However, that does not excuse us from doing stuff NOW to fix this thing. I am so glad the international community is stepping in to help.
The flow here is so interesting from the personal to the global than to someone else’s personal – the personal for women in Mali. Agh, what a terrible situation. And so many of them. Well wrought. k.
Thank you, Karin. Would not have attempted this, but for the prompt.
Ugly ugly ugly. They only know how to destroy, because they are failures are trying to build, so they find vulnerable people and places and pounce. I knew someone who was in Rwanda at the start of the genocide, she was leading a troop of tourists. They crossed three countries in their flee.
Wow. I am glad she got out.
OMG, this is amazing Susan. The contrast between the opening stanza, with your ‘almost name’ and the starkness of real time is so well done ~ epic
Polly, thank you. Never would have attempted this without the prompt.
“Purification” always fails still people try it. There was a time when it was used as elimination but now it’s called “cleansing” even though it’s the dirtiest thing when life is destroyed. Political pornography is all it is.
I hate the words they use to describe their heinous actions.
Ah so very very good.
Thank so much.
“Jihad” — it would be a joke if it weren’t so evil.
Yes, it would. I like the personal definition of jihad, which is the inner struggle (or is as this non-Muslim sees it). Problems happen when one (or a group of ones) start to impose their views on the rest of the world. Sad and scary.
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powerful poem. yes it is scary to watch the momentum of war.
Thanks, Lucy–and yes, it is.