Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

Children In The Water

Children in the water
See their tears through a camera lens
Then forget them.

Forget little Mariya clinging to her father,
Begging him not to leave
As her mother pulls her onto the bus,
Begging with silent eyes “Live.”

Forget little Nikolai screaming for his mother,
Amongst the rubble of their street
Wet flowing paths down his cheeks,
Carving streams through the dust of his home.

Forget little hands scrabbling against a tide
Of bullets and bombs, of shrieking missiles

Of dead loves

Children in the water
Loved then forgotten
Pitied then abandoned
Surfaced once, then drowned.

 

Jo Beetham-Yelland: “I live like the village swamp witch and am happily married to Robert. We take care or rescue animals, he does geeky stuff and I do writing stuff and we try to have a nice little life together. I’m an artist, photographer, writer, occasional author and game maker. I am overtly political and an old punk.”

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine arts photographer living in Brighton, Massachusetts. His work has appeared in Oddball Magazine, Spectrum, Wilderness House Literary Review, Interlude, Currents, and Encore.