Sorrow's Children

No laughter upon the grass
nor chasing about the streets
with fits of glee, so free
but eyes stretched deep without tears
elongated from years of pain
of thoughtless "Don'ts" and "No, you can'ts":
killers of the children's joys.

See them dragging their bodies about
in search of souls dead gone
as their chins scrape the ground
on their road to growth

Play escapes their steps
in the suns of their childhood

Now they mope toward family life
to dampen spirits shouting
from their childhood lips

Sorrow has won the day, the night
as sadness chains the eyes, the hands
the children's feet that ache to dance
the round of life with God's piped chant

*Tecum

With you

inside

a steady stream

of living light

we meet

in the presence

of nothing

more than

yes

we welcome

each other

unceasingly

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

*so

so

morning

a

breeze

-Jerry Schroeder, Cap.

*When approached with care, watchfulness, and sensitivity, the crossroads can be a place of promise and possibility, presenting a test that, once met, can lead to a renewed existence on another level.

Parabola/Crossroads/editors

*"Conscience," after all, is derived from words meaning, "to feel together", not simply to talk side-by-side.

-William Bryan Logan