World Requiem by Neil Boyd

The Church chants Eternal Rest, Requiem Aeternam, over the dead.
Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and on them shine eternal light.

Do you wonder why,
Wonder why I cry
When earth's loveliest things all die?
I fear I can hear
The thunder, thunder, thunder,
Sundering the sky.
Requiem, O Requiem,
Sing Requiem Aeternam.

Sing Requiem for the mighty whale
With his water-spout and dazzling tail.
How unforgiveable the wrong,
Once this gentle giant's gone.

Sing Requiem for the leafless trees,
For snow that is black, for poisoned seas,
The grass is brown, the flowers dead,
The air we breathe is full of lead.

Sing Requiem for dead lakes and streams
Where flying salmon and trout have been.
For cities foul with deadly smog
Star of Bethlehem lost in fog.

Sing Requiem for all things that fly.
Watch them fall lifeless from the sky.
And weep with me for babes who died
Unfed, unmourned, decayed inside.

Do you wonder why,
Wonder why I cry
When earth's loveliest things all die?
I fear I can hear
The thunder, thunder, thunder,
Sundering the sky.
Requiem, O Requiem,
Sing Requiem Aeternam.

Pictures

1. James Nachtwey, 1992, one of world’s greatest & bravest photo-journalists. Somali woman waits to be taken to a feeding center in a wheelbarrow.
2. Starving Child and Vulture by Kevin Carter 1993. A picture in a Lifetime