Children of Shadows 1

(For All the Lost Children)

What sentinels watch over us, the lost,
who fly as shadows
What vengeful archangels take wing,
keeping account of everything,
While we are bound to life
between two earthly planes?
While only tragedy
and emptiness remains?

What empty rhetoric has drowned the cost
in vapid shallows,
Simplistic terms for everything,
leaving the poison in the sting,
While our remembered life
still bears the bloody stains?
For sometimes justice lies
when love has severed veins.

Where were the ones who always cared for us-
when we were screaming?
The ones who kissed away our pain,
kept us amused through weeks of rain,
Taught us about the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost?
Where did the grownups go
when we needed them most?

Where were the strong ones, who were there for us
when we were dreaming;
Who saved us when nightmares lashed the rein,
banished the monsters once again,
Who told us of guardian angels;
all the Heavenly Host?
And where is justice,
when the world needs it the most?

Away with your rhetoric, and legends born to save.
No-one can help those crying out beyond the grave.

Children of Shadows 2

(For The Parents)

Be brave, my soul, be grounded at my centre,
When all the world comes calling at my door;
I stand if only courage is my mentor,
In letting go of all I struggled for.

Be sweet, my dreams, the waking day deserts me,
My prayers fall down unanswered from the sky;
Fond reverie returns to haunt and hurt me,
My hindsight crawls, as fleeting chances fly.

Be sanctuary, my home, though still and empty,
Silence the angry thoughts searing my head;
Let lie, unopened, letters friends have sent me,
With rag dolls staring from her empty bed.

She is a picture now, and two dimensions
Allow no contact more than smiling eyes.
All art and music are but dull pretensions
While plastic sunlight lights her paper skies.

©
All poems by Sara Russell, 2006