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You are here: Home / Blogs / GUEST BLOG RUDOLfO ANAYA “SYRIA’S CHILDREN”

GUEST BLOG RUDOLfO ANAYA “SYRIA’S CHILDREN”

May 1, 2016 by Tia Tenopia

Syria’s Children

Bashar-AssadPD_200The tyrant is mad!  The tyrant is mad!

He rains bombs on innocent children!

Stop!  I pray and watch on TV as

Syria is destroyed, cities laid

Waste.  Dust and the stench of death

Fill the streets.  Assad’s bombs

Murder man, woman and child.

Death does not discriminate, evil is

Loose upon the world — Run!  Run!

Save the children!  Gather your

Belongings and flee north,

Become pilgrims in this

Exodus of our murderous time.

 

Syrian-RefugeesPD_300Sojourners in foreign countries,

You did not choose this pilgrimage,

Assassins forced you out of your

Homes, your holy land.  I pray

You find rest on Europe’s shores.

                                                                                                     

The children, Syria’s children,

Images burned in my soul.  Cold and

Hungry, exhausted from walking —

Whose arms will open to greet you?

 

At dinner I eat a green salad

And feast on a delicious meal.

At night I take my sleep in

A warm December bed.

Syrian-Refugees2PD_300 

The weary months struggle into

January snow, New Year’s cold rains.

The pilgrims’ highway turns to mud.

The children sleep in cold tents

Under cold, wet blankets.

Thousands upon thousands exiled

From their homes, seeking new

Earth on which to rest.

 

Virgen1_200What can I do?  Pray nightly to la

Virgen Guadalupe, Mother of Mexico,

I beg you, gather the children in

Your blue robe, cover them with

Juan Diego’s tilma, spread a carpet

Of dark, red roses in their path.

 

Long ago el Santo Niño de Atocha

Delivered food to prisoners.  Now

Humble saint, fill your basket with

Bread for the children.  Deliver us

From our sins and our temptations,

I pray into long, restless nights.

My pleas fall like doom.

I am a haunted man.  What good

Is prayer?  The carnage continues.

 

Syrian-ChildrenPD_300Can I do more than watch TV?

Can I reach out and touch? Adopt

Two tortured children as my own?

Diane of the muddy, pink coat.

                                                                                                         

I stare into her blue eyes,

Swollen with fear, clinging to her

Parents’ hands, her pilgrim’s path

A prison of railroad tracks.

Efran, who drowned in the cold

Middle Sea, his body washed ashore.

Is this his pilgrim’s rest?

Syrian-Children-Little-GirlPD_300A million TV sets around the world

Flashed the image, a man picking

Up the frail, dead body, as one

Might gather a lovely, white gull

Drowned in the wine-dark sea.

 

Diane baptized by freezing rain,

Efran by a salty sea, I name you,

I baptize you now, my children,

Not images on TV but flesh and

Blood.  Are my prayers answered?

The world sits down to dinner.

I am that man at dinner,

A haunted soul.

                                                                                                         

Syrian-DestructionPD_300In the dooryard the apricot tree

Blooms, a bride in spring white.

Will my Diane ever dress in white?

My Efran find his way home?

The pilgrimage is not yet done.

Syria’s lost generation is still

At sea, on the road, prisoners in

Foreign camps, my children dying.

Do I have anger enough to fight?

Enough rage to save the children?

Compassion enough to offer

My home, my meals…

 __________________________________________

©Rudolfo Anaya, 2016

(Please contribute to agencies that are helping Syria’s children.)

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blogs, LATINOPIA GUEST BLOG Tagged With: Bashar Assad, Children in War, Rudolfo Anaya, Syria's Children Poem, Syrian Diaspora, The War in Syria

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