Tears For Newtown

Let me cry
And let my sorrow flow,
Endlessly,
With bitterness,
And with boundless remorse.
Let me crawl through
The labyrinth of human insanity,
Searching for reason.
Let me reach
For the tree of wisdom,
Shake its vines,
Begging for
A recall of the madness.
Let me repent,
Disown all my obsessions,
And kneel
At the alter of the Lord
In every wronged child.
Let time bend
And acquiesce
To the wishes of every parent
In Newtown,
And the world about.
Let me remember,
And never forget,
The dead children,
Their little faces,
Lit with bright eyes.
Their round cheeks
And clever hands.
Let me remember,
And never forget,
Their busy fingers and toes,
Giggly chatters,
And their wide smiles.
Let me remember
The day
when hope relented,
When innocence vanguished
In a twisted moment in time,
In Connecticut,
When the world paused,
And the angels bowed,
When we stood speechless,
And God cried.
Let my sadness encase me,
Impregnate the dew droplets
Of all my mornings.
As I mourn the undone lives,
Question the Lord,
Question his will,
While he weeps,
While the angels bow.
Let me cry the children,
And bid them proper farewell,
If one could ever be found.
Let me kiss their wounds,
Sing each a thousand lullabies,
Before their life-long goodbye,
For I am a father
And for once,
I, too, was a child.

Azzam Elayan
Monday, December 17, 2012.

(A tribute for the victims of the tragedy which has befallen the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, last Friday, December 14, 2012.)