To A Chinese
Refugee Child
3
And your mother...
e’en in the midst of such blood
frenzy
suchfighting hand to hand
moved like a flame undaunted
Hauling the wounded
carrying them safe to succor and
to solace
Safe from the wheels of crushing
tanks
But while she bore one away
She fainted and fell
tired and worn out
under the wheels of another tank
And you ...
you who were her all in all
she had not the solace of even a
thought
of you
in her life’s last moment
Your sister and your brother
young...
. When your enemy stood
victorious
and all resistance died away
a ghastly silence held the air
exulting soldiers
prowled the streets and lanes
seeking to quench their hellish
lust
Your sister
a modest bud of youthful beauty
espied was and dragged from out
of your house
Your brother
a twelve year old slip of a boy
raged and shouted and tried to grip
them
his boyish blood surging within
him
“ If you but touch her...”
Ha .. what will you do , little
wretch ..”
they grinned and gloated
they dragged them away, both of
them
dragged and hauled
somehow ,somewhere
how can I tell you what happened
there...
. And you...
Left alone where they had hid you
they called not out to you
lest you too may fall in their
demon hands
They left you alone
to the grace of Heaven
And now the heavens
have fallen upon you ...
Weary and waiting
filled with the fear of
loneliness
out from your hiding place
with ears alert
and eyes charged with fear
you stepped
looked into every nook and corner
of the vacant house
“ No one--- not anyone
where have they all gone
leaving me alone...”
And then your wail
as when the mother bird
of the little ones in the nest
goes somewhere far and falls prey
to someone’s little shot
and returns not
even when the evening comes
and then the wild screams of the
little ones ...
With flaming houses all around
you ran about here and there
screaming and wailing
like a baffled heifer
more afraid of the glaring flames
than of the growing darkness
lay down in the crevice of a ruin
to while away the night
and slept a deathly sleep ...
Ah, why did you wake up now ?
What dawn of day has life in
store for you ?
What hope of a rosy future ?
Was it not thus , little one
that you lost your parents dear
brother and sister ?
Or were they weaklings
dastardly cowards
dying many times before their
deaths
who took to their heals and left
you alone
their little darling
inking
what dearth of babes if life be
safe
Be they even so
oh blame them not
for life's a boon to every one
the brave or frail of heart
Such is the pull of life
Each moment on this earth of ours
a blessing is and precious gift
Even the brave see this
in the last hour of departing
life
And yet this wanton spilling of
life’s blood
When shall the world
live in peace routing at last
these wanton hordes