10/19/15
Poem was written in memory of a little drowned Syrian boy found on the Greek shore. Rest in peace little angel!
He looks like my Kenan!
Thin black shirt
lifted on his bare back
as he lies in the sand
face down
arms by his side.
He is sleeping
like my Kenan.
His small, three year old leg
bent on one side
nestled in the sand
his face turned
towards the Sun
in the sand
peaceful
free
while he is sleeping
like my Kenan.
Arms lifted him up
face of a soldier
sadness
and anger.
He is small,
he is three years old
and he is lying in the sand.
Sleeping
he must be sleeping,
he should be sleeping.
safe,
dreaming
of cookies
and of Sun
and play
and warmth of his mother’s arms
like my Kenan
he must be sleeping.
He looks like my Kenan,
but
is he sleeping?
He is not smiling
in his sleep
like my long-lashed
bright-eyed
vivacious
happy
mischievous
Kenan.
He is buried
lost
unlucky to have been born
to have lived
in this dark hour
of human greed
of human failure
to be human
to act human
to abandon the animal inside.
He is lost in the sea
his soul departed
merged with the Universe
not God
showing the fragments
of his sad boyhood.
He looks like my Kenan,
I am his mother
the pain tells me
I am his
and he is my Kenan
now gone
in the darkness of human hell.