Poet's Nook: "Child" by e.alexander

I heard it somewhere
Or perhaps read it some time ago
That one can tell of the state of a nation
By the simple observation of how the children
Are treated, cherished, loved, protected.


My heart cries not from sentimentality
But from an elixir of anger, despair & loss
Couched in our cruel indifference and blindness
We tarry on with our disconnected- stylized lives.. comatose
Shielded from the wailing and thrashing of our children..destroyed
By the scarlet hands of marooned fools we thoughtlessly
Call by a multitude of innocuous names (security forces, peace keepers..)


Frame misery, death, heart-break, a sea of tears
Around your child, niece, nephew, little cousin or friend
With arcs of wild brutality cascading on his/her little form
Last gasps taken, eyes glazed as their soul flees this dungeon of human convention…as
Pitiful reports from the field speak of the “necessary price to pay”
As mothers clutch their hearts, wrecked by love dying and dead before their hollowed eyes.

What are we becoming?
Why are we allowing ourselves to be stripped of our humanity?
Where is the indignation not to mention the exclamations of Truth to Power?-
Led to our slaughter by the numbing themes of Entertainment Tonight, CNN & ESPN (?)
While oceans away a farmer and father of two from Korea laments,
"All we have to eat are these watermelons. Once they are finished, that's it".

Delve into a child’s eyes
And be silenced by the magnitude of what’s found there.
In Ghandi, we heard, “We must become the change we wish to see”
All intentions and talk are hollow graves awaiting our fall
Cease, reflect and act upon righteous seeds without fear
For there is much to do and undo for our mutilated innocents…..


This is my prayer.