8,000 hands

Have to say something about this, so moved by that bulletin where the kids raised their hands. I wrote this a few days ago, and the numbers are already much higher.

8,000 hands

Black shadows under trees,

the bodies lay by the road for days.

A team in white space suits

zip up the body bags, but

there is nowhere for them to go.

A dead man’s nine children gather

with others across the street,

a strip of mud between them and disease.

Thirty stand in the shade there, ‘to be safe’.

There is nowhere for them to go.

These children have touched the virus;

there are no foster families,

no reception centres, no welcoming arms,

there is nowhere for them to go.

Aid workers can only offer soap.

Asked if they have lost a parent to ebola,

each child puts both hands in the air

and stands in the silence, to stare.

4,000  will raise both hands today

to make black shadows across paths of mud.

No one will touch them.

There is nowhere for them to go.

*If you like poetry that connects with current affairs, you will find plenty more here:

http://poetry-24.blogspot.co.uk/

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-29888067

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/11/04/ebolas-orphans-survivors-care-for-children-left-behind-by-disease/