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Childhood Revisited

A three-year-old lies in the dust naked and hungry While a civil war rages around him in Ethiopia An Afghani teenager lives every day with terror-- Her future more tenuous than the government In parts of the world where to be different means Born into inevitable hopelessness, fear, and death Many of the world’s children orphaned by Covid Childhood for them will never be like we knew Free of terror, churning hunger, ravaging disease A childhood of fun and frolic, schooling, each new Day promising new adventures under a parental lid Born in America we never worried for our next breath Never surrounded with war’s devastating scenes Never really wondering what our existence meant Whether our being was some kind of divine error No, fact is, most of us live in a comparative utopia And if we understand their situation, we must agree written October 30, 2021 [a poem written in my reverse rhyming style]

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Terry Flood

Date: 10/31/2021 7:04:00 AM

Can’t really say much more than ‘absolutely’. I don’t know if the expression is used in the States, but adults used to tell whingeing kids, ‘Kids today don’t know they’re born.’ Terry

L Milton Hankins
Date: 10/31/2021 11:27:00 AM

That's so true, Terry. Most kids born in the west do not know how lucky they have it, in my opinion.

Gershon Wolf

Date: 10/30/2021 8:39:00 PM

That's right, and we should appreciate what we have, merely due to the accident of birth and the grace of an unseen God... In addition to which, we in the USA live better than Kings and Queens did 150 years ago. Much better. Thanks for this one, Milt. ~ Gratitudinally yours, gw

L Milton Hankins
Date: 10/30/2021 9:01:00 PM

You are quite welcome, gw. Glad you read it, and thanks so much always for your thoughtful comments.

Shirley Hawkins

Date: 10/30/2021 7:36:00 PM

Sadly life is not fair.....

L Milton Hankins
Date: 10/30/2021 8:26:00 PM

Hmmm...I'm not sure whether it is life or humanity, but either way it's not fair. We, nor they, have no control over where we are born or what we are born into.

Caren Krutsinger

Date: 10/30/2021 3:18:00 PM

Some born in America are worried about their last breath, Though. Sadly. We are not as untouchable as we like to believe, still this is a lovely empathetic piece Hank.

L Milton Hankins
Date: 10/30/2021 6:47:00 PM

Thanks for your kind, meaningful thoughts, Caren. No one has it better in the entire world, for all of our problems and concerns, than we do. At least that's how I feel.

Tom Cunningham

Date: 10/30/2021 12:53:00 PM

There is something to be said about living in a civilised society where we can worship without fear of persecution, vote in who we want to govern us, freedom to speak out against wrongdoings yet in many parts of the world some choose to live in the dark ages and kill anyone who opposes them. Tom

L Milton Hankins
Date: 10/30/2021 1:01:00 PM

That is so true, Tom. In that regard, we are so blessed.