TO A CHINESE
REFUGEE CHILD
2
They still fade not from my mind’s screen
those eyes of yours
those eyes
lost and aghast
wild with fright
swollen and bulging with tears suppressed
Will they breakdown
this minute, this very minute
in a flood of tears, sobbing and bursting?.
Desolation boundless
your little lips open wide
revealing your tiny teeth.
calling out to whom, in utter
helplessness
Father ! Mother! Ah sister dear
Here I am? how forsaken..
shall I dash forth and run to
them..
Your little feet poised for
flight towards them..
did thrill of escape lift your
hair on end ?
.. your limp baby hair?
And the next half-second
give a throb again ?
Alas - not father, nor mother,
nor sister dear
strangers , oh God ...
where, oh where, shall I seek
them now
And so did you fling yourself
down in the dust-
the bosom of mother earth?
Earth, the mother
that place of birth
greater than heaven...
alas, how helpless under the
heels of the aggressor
cleft open by him to be filled
with her own offspring
her heroic sons and daughters
brave
thousands that laid their lives
for her
Up, up my babe
what good is it to weep ?
Who?ll heed these tears of thine?
Are they human beings you
glimpsed but now ?
Demons they are of lust of
dominion
seeking but victims for their
steely gods
the gargantuan mouths of Machine
Headless and heartless
terrible anthropophagi
robots that rattle
soldiers of Satan
marching , perhaps, your kith and
kin away
towards the firing squad
Up ,my babe, and speed your
little legs
or swiftly hide in heath or bolt
beyond the cruel ken of butchers these
suckers of blood...
For surely they?ll strain e’en
your baby -blood
to transfuse to their wounded
soldiers
How many, many babes
little Chinese orphans
were snatched from cosy homes
left alone or separated
stranded, from their parents
left in blasted places
oh millions of them
crying in the ruins
dying away
Your father and mother
do you blame them , child ?
Alas, you no not what befell ?.
When the enemy hordes reached
your land
the precincts of your village
when shell and shrapnel began to burst
your father
loyal son of his native land
ran forth with all his strength
grenade in hand and any arms
he could lay his hand upon
joined the band of brave
guerrillas
seeking and hiding
tossing the enemy to and fro
laying him low
into the dust
the marauding hordes
inflamed with lust...
But ah misfortune
he was shot by a sniper through
and through
unerring in his deadly aim...
The last moment
in a lightning vision
you flashed before his fading eye
your mother ,you, all of you..
and then the light faded away
There fell he
dust gathered to his country’s
dust