Dreams of Children

By Michael R Burch

I, too, have a dream

I, too, have a dream …

that one day Jews and Christians

will see me as I am:

a small child, lonely and afraid,

staring down the barrels of their big bazookas,

knowing I did nothing

to deserve their enmity.

―The Child Poets of Gaza

Published by Toronto for Kashmir, Poems for Gaza, Promosaik (Germany), Irish Blog, Fans of Justice, Zeteo Journal and Kenyatta University (Kenya)

My nightmare …

I had a dream of Jesus!
Mama, his eyes were so kind!
But behind him I saw a billion Christians
hissing “You’re nothing!,” so blind.
―The Child Poets of Gaza

Published by The HyperTexts, Poems for Gaza, Ishmael Gaza, Promosaik (Germany) and Tanzania German Youth

Something

for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba 

Something inescapable is lost—

lost like a pale vapour curling up into shafts of moonlight,

vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars

immeasurable and void.

.

Something uncapturable is gone—

gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,

scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass

and remembrance.

.

Something unforgettable is past—

blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less,

which finality swept into a corner … where it lies

in dust and cobwebs and silence.

.

Published by There is Something in the Autumn (anthology), The Eclectic Muse (Canada), Setu (India), FreeXpression(Australia), Life and Legends, Poetry Super Highway, Poet’s Corner, Promosaik (Germany), Better Than Starbucks, The Chained Muse; also used in numerous Holocaust projects; translated into Romanian by Petru Dimofte; translated into Turkish by Nurgül Yayman; turned into a YouTube video by Lillian Y. Wong; and used by Windsor Jewish Community Centre during a candle-lighting ceremony.

.

Michael R. Burch has over 6,000 publications, including poems that have gone viral. His poems have been translated into fourteen languages and set to music by eleven composers. He also edits The HyperTexts (online at www.thehypertexts.com).

.

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL.