Somewhere a child is crying.
Lord, help me find him
that I may do my duty to my King.
Led by what dark star
to the outskirts of the capital,
as a man under orders,
commanded, I go.
All of them, he said,
up to the age of two.
I passed one by a while back,
perhaps small for his age;
the soldier behind me thought otherwise.
Soldier. Is this soldiers’ work?
Up to the age of two, he said.
The King is a hard man.
It’s no disloyalty to acknowledge it.
You don’t build a kingdom being soft.
He cuts a broad swath, our King.
All of them, he said,
up to the age of two.
It’s quieter now the screaming’s over.
The cobblestones are slippery
and it’s too dark now
to see with what.
But somewhere up ahead
a child is crying.
Lord, help me find him
that I may do my duty to my King.
— Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG
A mirrorwise reflection between Matthew 2.16 and John 16.2
this poem was first published in The Witness online, December 2003
A reflection on the slaughter of innocents:
ReplyDeleteThe health of the nations
reflects in the lives of its children
Herod lives when one child dies of hunger.
from Streams of Mercy.
Very Powerful. A very interesting perspective to contemplate on Holy Innocents Day.
ReplyDeleteHerod, the scared old man, who is the mechanism which puts the machine in motion.
The soldiers who only carry out the scared old man's orders.
And the babies who die because the scared old man says they must...