Today's thread, a blessing for the children whom life has devastated otherwise by Marie Lynam Fitzpatrick.

Blessed are the Children

by Marie Lynam Fitzpatrick

Blessed are the Children

And life goes on ...

1)

Blasted Shadows pepper their souls
and kiss them:

Geoff was six and on a birthday treat with his mum.
Geoff was six:
When she phoned his dad from a pay phone.
On a birthday treat with his mum when she was blown
to bits in a pay phone by shadow men.

Kathleen was nine and trapped by men in uniforms.
Kathleen was nine:
Dragged from her bed,
Poked with guns by men in uniform,
They shot her da and trapped her.

Abeni was eight when she found out that she was different.
Abeni was eight:
She starved and the World had to feed her,
She lived in Africa, and the World had to feed her,
So she was different.

Doran was eleven when men splintered his present.
Doran was eleven:
Night screamed a storm, a tirade of horror
splintered his present. The night screamed
A storm that savaged him.

2)

Geoff was sixteen on a birthday treat with his friends.
Geoff was sixteen:
That night he got drunk and stole a car, crashed!
And killed a friend while out on a birthday treat
Escaping from shadow men.

Kathleen was nineteen trapped by men in uniforms
Kathleen was nineteen:
Making bombs from fire, maiming and killing,
Dragged from her bed, she was interrogated  and imprisoned.
She's still trapped.

Abeni was eighteen when she found that she was pregnant
Abeni was eighteen:
Pregnant, undernourished, she remembered
She was different as she walked fifty miles
to a hospital to birth her baby.

Doran came of age the night they planned the raids
Doran came of age:
Planning a tirade of horror to splinter
The present of those who savaged
his past.

MLF 2006