To Shine a Light On Another's Suffering.

       To feel the pain and anguish of the other, to see the injustice around us, is one part of being human, but to put those feelings into words and shine a light on another's suffering, is a special human gift.

The City of Beggar Children,

Where do the beggar children come from,

what forces multiply their rags?

Whose heart has never felt those fingers

pecked

by birds with copper beaks?

Who hasn’t stopped to see their bones

and hear their voices

pleading like humiliated bells?

Let there be no beggar children dwarfed in doorways,

chilled by cemetery mist,

pale wall of the city.

Let there be children with toys,

bread

and stars beneath their shoes.

Let them play in the school yard

and catch insects in the grass.

Let them live in their own worlds

among the beings and the things they love.

Roberto Sosa

    From The Return of the River: the Selected Poems of Roberto Sosa (Willimantic CT: Curbstone Press, 2002)

translated by Jo Anne Engelbert

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