Children Dying Too Soon
A poem dedicated to the more than 4,104 children (from: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), mostly Palestinians children in Gaza, who have been killed since the beginning of the war between Hamas and Israel that started over a month ago. It has been reported that more than 100 Palestinian children are killed every day on average. According to Save the Children, more children have been killed in just over three weeks in Gaza than in all the world’s conflicts combined in each of the past three years. Israeli children have also been killed by Hamas last October 7. It is estimated that there are roughly 30 Israeli children among the roughly 214 hostages taken by Hamas.
A life snuffed too soon.
No time to cry to feel the pain.
No time to look into their mother’s eyes for comfort.
No time to listen to one’s favorite lullaby.
No time to play under the blue sky.
No time to give a friendly smile to a stranger.
No time to watch the trees turn green.
No time to smell the flowers bloom.
No time to appreciate a butterfly as it emerges in its full splendor.
No time to admire the intricate colors of the rainbow.
No time to peacefully sleep under the midnight sky.
No time to bathe in the sun.
No time to learn their ABCs under a teacher’s watchful eyes.
No time to learn how to strum a guitar and sing a love song.
No time to run as bombs rain with vengeance.
No time to ask: Why?
No time even to hold their parents’ hands and say goodbye.
Young lives hardly begun sacrificed.
I shed a tear for these children will never be.
I shed a tear for the senseless loss of lives.
I earnestly beg for the same God we all worship to stop man’s inhumanity to man in the name of justice.
But I am not without hope.
The blood spilled by these children will, like a river, lead to a new land full of promise, full of life, and where the children can once again play happily.