Suffer the Children, Forbid Them Not
Suffer the Children, Forbid Them Not
By J. David Cummings
“But Jesus said, Suffer the little children,
and forbid them not, to come unto me:
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
—Mathew 19: 14
**********************************************
What can anyone do now
but remember the children in the
streets, eight forty-five, dressed
in their clean uniforms,
on their way to school, walking
together, chirping like birds
when the sky became the sun?
What can anyone do now but see
it pure in the mind as time
relinquishes time and one arrives
among them there in the knife-
edge moment— ash not ash,
shadow and light, for they were
not forbidden?
—Monday, August 6, 1945
Hiroshima, Japan **********************************************
What can anyone do now? His
name was Alan Kurdi or maybe
Aylan Shenu. He’s face down, a
small package the sea has
returned to us, the photograph
a mirror if our eyes are strong
enough.
What can anyone do, now?
The facts are clouding over,
the mirror fogs. Quickly then:
his jersey a touch of red, the
left hand open, upturned.
The water kept two others,
for they were not forbidden.
—Wednesday, September 2, 2015
Bodrum, Turkey
J. David Cummings won the 2013 Richard Snyder Prize for Tancho (Ashland Press). He lives in northern California.