How does a child process
bombs falling,
their family fleeing
through the rubble and gunfire,
no safe place,
no food,
their parents desperate
- or dying -
living outdoors in all weather,
ill, injured, starving,
no hope of help or rescue
while the whole world watches?
How does any human heart
process suffering
this deep?
for Sumana's prompt at What's Going On? : The Children
CNN reports that 1.4 million people, twice the population of New York, are crammed into Rafah, (less than 25 square miles), where they fled for safety, but are now under fire. Children and women make up 70% (25,000) of the 30,000 killed since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. Civilians do not want this war. Children are starving and suffering intestinal diseases due to lack of sanitation and access to clean water. They are living without shelter, medical care or safety. Contributing reasons and political responses aside, the sheer inhumanity of what is happening to ordinary civilians there - especially the children - weighs heavily on my heart. No one wins in war.
Sigh, the children who survive will be forever scarred (and scared). Such inhumanity. A powerful reminder, Sherry!
ReplyDelete"while the whole world watches"
ReplyDeleteIt blows my mind that I can go on with my daily life as if it mattered . . . . Straight to the point!
I think I kind of wrote about the same thing, Sherry. Those children will be traumatized for ever- the things their eyes have seen.. horror after horror. While the world watches, not idly, but sending more money and arms.
ReplyDeleteWar is a business so this type of suffering will never stop. How sad!! "while the whole world watches?" Isn't this eerie? No one has any intention to stop this. Heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteI wrote on the same topic....awful reality!...Rall
ReplyDeleteWe’re always being told that children are resilient, but I have known people who were scarred by the London Blitz. Falling bombs never leave you; they often fall in your dreams. You have evoked sadness and despair with your poem, Sherry. It should be read by so many more people.
ReplyDeleteBefore the prompt of the day I wrote the following short by-the-seat-of-my-pants poem... which speaks to the heart-rending time ....
ReplyDeleteHow do you fight a peaceful war?
Risen from crematoria ash
To protect safe haven and never again
How do you fight a peaceful war?
With adversaries who pledge annihilation
As innocents run and fall in the cross-fire
How do you fight a peaceful war?
Not until the spring rain falls with
wet white olive blossoms of hope in
dappled sunshine glistening
over verdant land
It is all horrifying, whatever group of people are suffering. Nobody ever wins.
DeleteThey don't deserve to be stuck like that, like in a factory farm, like nonhuman beings also don't deserve. Horrors everywhere we look, let's flee to the trails Sherry.
ReplyDeleteIt is a terrible situation - and it guarantees to perpetuate terrorism.
ReplyDeleteThis is heart felt and rips at the inside. Suffering is never acceptable and this captures the truth it brings. Well Done
ReplyDeleteSherry,
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to know where to start within the murder, mayhem and suffering that those little children are living amongst at present. Hard to imagine that survival is basically from moment to moment; starving each and every second.
I feel so helpless watching the emerging scenes of pain and misery on the news..I never thought that this degree of inhumanity could continue...not even a crumb of comfort...
That is an unanswerable question. My sister in law was a teacher in a primary school shortly after refugees from the Vietnam war arrived in Australia. When a truck dumped a load of gravel and made a big bang the kids all hit the floor and hid under their desks. They're all grown up and most are happy, productive adults. I guess the answer to your question is that healing is possible in the right circumstances but it takes time. Suzanne - Wayfaring - Wordpress blog
ReplyDeleteThis is heartbreaking reality I wish no child had to live.
ReplyDelete