Children,
I watch you learn the same paper crafts that I learned
Nearly seventy years ago.
I might have been your great grandmother,
Had history taken a different turn.
Fold the paper just right
And pray for me as you set the paper cranes
To flight.
Forever six years old,
I am in every sunbeam, cloud and snowflake
That falls over Hiroshima
As the ashes of my bones,
Caught up in the poison windstorm decades ago,
Look for a peaceful place to rest.
© Judith C Evans 2014
Written for Poets United Midweek Motif prompt: "Hiroshima, or Ring a Bell"
11 comments:
Gasp! So very possible that it's chilling. Nicely done, setting up the story observer to child and then child of ash to child . . .
So poignantly beautiful, Judith. Really hits the heart. I love it. "I am in every sunbeam...."
"Forever six years old"...this expression is heartbreaking...i love this poem with a lump in my throat.. ...beautiful
Judith, you are an amazing word artist and your poetry reflects a rare genius of compassion and love at every turn of your life!! Beautifully written and expressed.....hoping humanity will learn from you.
Hopeful that people will remember not just the 6 year old but the promise of the generation from Hiroshima that never grew up
The ashes of the past are indeed in us and around us...I am glad you gave her a voice
This is such a telling poem about the event. Lives cut short by war, always makes tragedy.
This is beautiful!
So much tragedy in our world. I think of the suffering of so many, particularly the children toady, like those caught in the slaughter currently going in the Middle East. Your words could easily be of any of them, poignant and truthful. "Suffer the little ones to come to Me."
Amen, Cecilia. And thank you, Kim!
elegant imagery.
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