DEATH

We resigned to the Nations

UNITED Nations of all this world

to detest

to deny

to assure ourselves and others

that attitude would n'er beat the civilized mind on war.

We would each

tote concern

for the other.

Yet

AS WE WATCHED

a terror scene

the same beg and plea bargain

played thief of life

life of babes

it begged to tend.

IN THE ARMS OF MOTHERS

slumped against cool mortar and stone

paste faced except for the spatters

spatters oddly set

against the vivid blue and corals

knitted hat scarf and shawl wrapped

around what once was a babe

was once a toddler

on a list

in a mother's mind

waiting for the day in school

waiting to be chosen

or to play at first base.

Nothing now

nothing except jellied clots of drying blood

lumped in a mother's skirt

slumped with her

against a door

set along a cobbled way

in Israel

at the end of a request begging for money

to do their children

DO THE CHILDREN

in Israel.

...the wrong children

in their way.

...3/2022 on the race war