Ursula Kiernan
Small arms
A harmless child an armless child
no anaesthetic
no prosthetic
and there are others too
an endless queue of small arms casualties.
No beds or blankets
food or medical supplies.
Bandits rob the refugees.
Can’t we stop these crimes against poor people
made more poor because small arms
are cheap
prolific
deadly
in these sad unstable countries
which we call Third World?
Look at these enormous eyes.
Old man’s eyes
in the face of a young child.
No-one asked this small Somali boy, whose mother
can’t be found, if he wanted to be born,
given heat, starvation, flies
and dirty water
with the added hazard now
of landmines underfoot.
If he had arms instead of stumps, he would
tug my sleeve. Instead, he smiles.
Although we cannot change his poorness
perhaps we can at least
stop the deadly small arms trade
and change the firing line.
Page(s) 74
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