"Listen to the Cry"

For those of you who connect with history through personal narratives, the following poems are written by Sudanese survivors. Both poems paint clear pictures of the plight of the Lost Boys. They are excellent examples of how voice and word choice evoke empathy in the reader and connect them to the topic and the author's purpose.

"Cast Out"

Sometimes I think it would have been
easier for me to die
together with my parents than
to have been surrendered by
them to survive alone...

Sometimes I feel I am a ghost
adrift without identity
what as a child I valued most
forever has escaped from me
I have been cast out and am lost.

From We Came as Children: A Collective Autobiography

"The Lost Boys' Cry"

Listen to the voice of despair
Listen to the Lost Boys' cry
You, the world
Hell and despair are upon me
Crack and again crack
The blood that oozes out of my skin
I fall on the sand and stones
In the driest part of the third world country
I saw the hand stretched from the west
Dropping liquid and food into my mouth
I don't care to what they are putting
Into my mouth; what I need is to survive

Listen to the voice of the Lost Boy
Listen to the voice of despair
Agonies are one of my changes of garments
Living in a thatched house
That gives room to the raining rain
Afterward I look like a cock sheltered in the rain
I was expelled from my rich country
With black soil and beauty
Full of happiness, laughter
And sociality in that nomadic life
At last I found myself in semi arid area
Borders of countries
I am like channeled water that flows anywhere
The day before yesterday I was in Sudan
Yesterday in Ethiopia
Today in Kenya
Tomorrow I don't know
Where will I be?

Listen to the voice of despair
Listen to the Lost Boys' cry
The world,
Some look at me with sad eyes
That symbolizes sympathy
I am sitting in this hot sunny area
Thinking of the day when the enemy's
Helicopters, gun ships and antinove
[a type of unseen aircraft with bombs]
Came dropping bombs in series
Killing the people, tiny creatures
And livestock
The smoke shook the sky
The army in khaki
Invaded the region
Applying the scorched earth policy
Attacking with cannons
Mortars, chemical weapons
That leaves every creature
To suffocate to death

Listen to the voice of despair
Listen to the lost boy's cry
Again to my listening ears
The cannons responsive
I realized life would never be the same again
For the southerner
Living people in orphanage
Insecurity, rape, massacres
And murdering of the innocent people
Many cases of the lost boys
Who found themselves
In the neighboring countries
Sudan will never be the same again
For black people
Remembering the Friday night
When the army siege
The bent (oil field) region
Collecting everybody
Even the ones who
Are still sucking from their mother's breast
Putting them in enclosed metal fence
Spraying them with paraffin
At eleven o'clock
Began the burning of their bodies
That's the take of massacre

World,
Listen to the voice of despair
Listen to the Lost Boys' cry
Come dad, come mom
Brothers and sisters
I am requesting the east and the west
North and south
Of you who can give a hand
To the burning land
Full of evil deed
Segregation in the line of religion
Color segregation
Imposing of Sharia law
Come and call us
To sit in the table of diplomacy
Reconciliation in the top
Of the agenda
Let there be walking and drinking together
Let doves fly over the land
To the gigantic land of Sudan
This productive
Land of economy
At Last,
Let me see the black Sudanese
Come back from the Four Corners
Of the world
Bringing in the foreign culture
To fertilize Sudan
May the dream
Become true
In order to avoid
And overcome
The burden of tomorrow
Amen

~ Kim Simon Jial