No, I’m not referencing the situation here in America.

There’s another former president from a far-away land who also says he didn’t do it.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the Kosovo War. That country’s former president pleaded not guilty at The Hague today to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mom had a way of deeply humanizing stories of political and ethnic conflict through her writing. From Paddy McCarthy’s part in Belfast’s Bloody Sunday in 1971 to the spring lambs in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo, Mom’s empathy guided her pen.

Kosovo

I think of the little feet
of spring lambs that were sealed
in the firebarn
and my own spring lamb in the house
who would have danced one day

I was too far when they set the fires
my heart died at the distance
when I saw the flames and knew
and knew I’d lost them all

The child with me screamed
Father Father
we have no water
but our tears were the water
and we were drowning

~ joan vayo September 28, 1998

Those far more knowledgable than I tell the stories of the conflict, the so-called “ethnic cleansing,” concentration camps, and mass graves. During this Holy Week for so many religions, may the prayers of the innocents be heard above the clamor of the guilty.

“Kosovo” © 1998 joan vayo. All rights reserved.

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