She stood hugging her troubled Teddy bear
in a place that is called somewhere safe, a
smiling helper asked her name. Gripping
her furry friend she smiled and cried. The
words stuck in her throat for, how could she
say the words that break the silence and
blast her back into the tumbled world of
bangs, dust, cries, screams and tears on her
mother’s cheeks through the moving window.
—-
Twisting her head, she spied others like her
with strangers’ heads bent towards them,
offering packets of sandwiches, drinks
and everywhere she looked her eyes were
searching for her mother, her father and
listening for their words and surely they
will call her name. But in all the noise of
kindness her broken heart silently called
for them and someone tried to gather her
into their arms and softening their voice,
—-
said, ‘Ucisz moje maleństwo,’ over and
over, covering their own horror and pain
by repetition and under the words they
prayed for patience and strength and that
this skinny sobbing girl would begin to
trust them to care for her. Slowly, sobs
steeped in terror subsided and a the
small hand slipped into theirs. All round
the world this moment repeats to the
——-
tearing of the fragment of a child’s life.
And nightmares and silence fold in on
a small person, who had been tucked in
their own bed after a story, and known
that in the morning their мати would
come in and lovingly call them to wake,
go to school or to the park after hugs.
and they were safe, loved and secure,
and it is all gone because Putin says so.
—–
He has sent these children into terror
and there will be many who respond
and help, heal and nurture them into a
safe place again. My heart breaks too
for he has sent them wantonly, wickedly
into traffickers’ snares to be hurt, killed,
abused, and enslaved by the callous,
cruel, inhuman people. This evil crime
of sending children to a hell is his too.