(Poem) Eastside Requiem

Source: The Tyee

look into my eyes and

see the lost horizon

step across the line, your world to mine

and you'll wizen

under fading streetlights

winter chills and night frights

somewhere east of where you ceased to care

where the earth blights

and you don't shed a tear

while my friends disappear

without warning

one more dark winter's eve

one more lost life to grieve

in the morning

another daughter of the eastside

nothing but someone else's problem

yes you knew the story

knew we were the quarry

knew he was bad news, yet you would choose

to ignore me

in this urban blister

every stolen sister

had a tale to tell, she cried and fell

you dismissed her

who was she, you don't care

she was used, disrepaired

and foresaken

but the faces and names

and the loved ones remain

ere to waken

daughters standing in procession

one day to stand in vindication

(Vancouver, 2007)

This week the children of three women who were murdered by Robert Pickton filed lawsuits against the police and the serial killer, marking the first such cases involving women Pickton was convicted of killing. This brings the total number of cases filed since May in relation to the Pickton slayings to nine, alleging the RCMP failed to properly investigate their disappearances.

The families and loved ones of these missing women continue to fight for justice, even as this crime has now faded from public consciousness. This unspeakable crime against the city of Vancouver's most vulnerable and downtrodden residents, and the apathy that surrounded their plight until the horrible reality of the situation was revealed to all, must never be forgotten.

I wrote this poem over six years ago. The fact that any news story on this and similar stories involving murdered women on the fringes of society are either shut down to comments altogether or have close to half the comments blocked due to offensive content tells me that the bigger fight against the prevailing social attitudes that abetted this atrocity is far from over.