Day of Knowledge 2004

8:30
excitement boils
parents, kids
arrive at Beslan
school number one

gifts,
balloons,
laughter,

celebration


9:20
truck arrives;
stage is set for

bloodbath


9:25
killing starts,
living forced
into the gym


16:25
no food
no water
no toilet visits


14:20
hot
hungry
thirsty

hostages
drink urine


11:38
mothers
with babies
released


11:40
‘they’
do not allow
older children
to leave


11:42
death is
imminent;
mother of two
stays put


‘they’
send her
infant son
to freedom


13:45
army confronts
terrorists

bloody skirmish


13:47
mother cocoons
first-born
soothingly
selflessly
lovingly

easing terror
into
oblivion


baby orphaned

(All rights reserved)


BACKGROUND
The poem is named Day of Knowledge after the designated name of the first day of the new school year in Russia. This is a poetic tribute to the hundreds of children, parents, teachers and others who died during the bloodbath at School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia, over a period of approx. 60 hours in September 2004. In particular, this is a tribute to a mother who refused to leave one child in order to save another. Moving account of this hostage situation at :

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/20/48hours/main668127.shtml

QUOTE
"One of the terrorists said that a Russian plane flown from our airfield had killed his entire family," says Elena. "Now, he wanted to kill and didn't care that it was women and children." UNQUOTE