During this semester we had the privilege of hosting The Stag x LitSoc Creative Writing Competition. At the end of November, and the end of public voting, we were happy to announce our very own Nour Morsy as the winner. Here is her winning poem.
If you're inspired by our spotlight on creative writing, don't hesitate to drop us an email with your own ideas!
Today I stand as a beholder of truth and horror
I shall consider myself lucky to speak
Some have lost their bodies and others
They’ve lost their dignity
Only one generation ago you swore this would never happen again
It was one lifetime ago, that I watched you renounce your friends
Today you bring me here to renounce mine
As if history has no eyes, as if
You think I am too young to remember
Except terror is not fleeting as a cup of coffee
Anguish is generational and children
Hold divine rage in their bodies
What’s the criteria for suffering? One your honour may allow?
How much longer does pain have to nest in a chest
For you to realise birds will not come fluttering out?
Do the names written on the back of hands mean nothing?
With every atrocity you swear to never again let it happen
Except you’re the one found devising the plans
You ask me to condemn but
I charge you with crimes against humanity
If you even know what that is
I will never forget what you did
The streets you paid to remain squalid
And the raining hell you funded
I will never forget the agony I witnessed
Oh dear paragons of virtue
One day the souls of the martyred will haunt you
They may never forgive the silence
No matter how many times you beg
Or how much you swear you’re brimming with guilt
Today I stand witness, as I have stood all my life
To the devastation and the suffering
The dehumanisation and lurking
It will not go unnoticed
I noticed… and you may never live it down