WHY DO CHILDREN KILL CHILDREN?

In a world
where the line between child and man
has become lost
does it surprise us
that the child acts
as the man acts
and all innocence is lost?

There is but one impulse
upon this Earth
and it is the search
for Love and meaning
It is what compels the infant
to utter a first cry
and it is what the aged reach for
when remaining moments are few

But when the ego roars
and separation comes
as it must to many
When illusion reigns
and the fight for significance
that desperate grasp
pushes up through the limitation
of a misguided mind
The fully grown  man enacts the small child
becomes one whose need
surpasses his sense
and from this place he builds
towers and borders
prisons and hospitals
kingdoms and schools
governments and poisons
weapons and lies
and lies
and lies

And in the midst of this world
he fathers a son
mothers a daughter
teaches a student
passes a law
buys what he is told
kills for an army
prays for a priest
and day after day
forgets that he is a soul

And the children eat
of the food they are served
they swim in the dark water
they sleep
with the songs and images
of corruption in their beds
And still they love
and still they have hope
and still they reach
for what they may never understand

It is a promise
that the child
who held the gun
was in need of a holy love
It is a promise
that this would have been true
of the man
he would have grown to become
It is a promise
that had he lived
to father a child
that child too
would have fought and begged
wept and wondered
searching always and only
for Love

We are confused by the toys
of men and their boys
we become lost in our wanderings
through a material land
when all truth is found
not in self righteous control
but in limitless compassion
for the child
in every man

As we remember
our own child within
it empowers us to extend a hand
to the babe in our arms
the sister
the brother
before us
As we look to the suffering
and confusions of the world
we begin again with the children
the hungry, wishful children
who deserve nothing less
than the purity of their birth

So when we seek to blame
when we judge and rage
remember we are One soul
one purpose
cut from the same divine cloth
Every child who holds a weapon
is our kin, our child, our daughter or son
And while we must be strong
we must stand and speak true
there is nothing
nothing
beyond Love
that will do

© Cynthia Long 2013

www.adikanda.com
www.
cynthialong.ca

info@cynthialong.ca

Please leave a comment below and I will respond.  
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this very moving subject.  

love, Cynthia

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