Halima's Coloured Drawing Poem by Tony Walton

In Halima's coloured drawing
everything weeps. Why did they kill
my sister? A red rose weeps blood.
The clouds weep blood. The sun weeps blood.
The eye of God weeps blood. Why did
they kill my sister? The gunship
in the sky rains down a deadly
shower of bursting light, with
a shell through the roof of a house
that explodes into thick red smoke
in Halima's coloured drawing;
as another points a finger
at the weeping girl who watches
from between two green olive trees,
and the tears of one tree mingle
with her own tears in a blue pool.
Why did they kill my sister? Why?
And in the street, in a red pool
of blood surrounded by her arms
and legs, the body of a child;
as the deadly rain of bright light
exploding continues to fall,
in Halima's coloured drawing
of all the nightmares she has seen.