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A Moment of Silence in a Forest of White Crosses (poem)

By Gregory Ross

The Dead

do not require our silence to be honored
do not require our silence to be remembered.
do not accept our silence as remembrance, as honor.
do not expect our silence to end

the carnage of war
the child starved
the woman raped
the virulence of intolerance
the Earth desecrated.

It is the living who require our silence
in a lifetime of fear and complicity

The Dead

do require our courage to defy the powerful and greedy.
do require our lives be loud, compassionate, courageous.
do require our anger at the continuance of war in their name.
do require our shock at the maiming of the Earth in their name.
do require our outrage to be honored, to be remembered.

The Dead
have no use for our silence

—Gregory Ross