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Two Children Die in Border Custody

Two Children Die in Border Custody

 

Two children from another country

Died because they were in the USA

They didn’t break in; there was no crime

They were busy being children

 

This happened famously

How many are dying quietly

 

Security is one thing

Incompetent security another

Are the agents uncaring in their job

I do not know

But it’s the policymakers, our surrogates

And advocates, who show less

Wisdom based on no compassion

 

If it were your child

But it’s not

But if it were

But it would never be

Really, you never think the broad sweep

Of a killing blade might not reach

You or yours

 

Such randomness in civil violence

Such lack of specific concern

Will the impersonal never touch the personal

Are you not affected

Aren’t we all

 

If not for fear of something awful

Let’s turn to the cause of something really good

We say we like life

Let’s like it, then

Cherish it, protect it

Let it go when it’s time

In the ordinariness of the divine

 

Let’s not make tragedy

We say we like free will

Be that democracy

That has made tyrants weep

Despots weak

Bullies to give up the fight

Or lose any place work having

 

I’ve heard us say that we like children

That we care for health, safety

Education

Family

I sound like a poster, now

How about this one, I Want You

Or We Can Do It

 

C L Couch

 

https://abc7chicago.com/2nd-guatemalan-child-dies-in-us-custody;-medical-checks-ordered/4968761/

 

Guatemalan boy, 8, dies in US custody on Christmas Eve – CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/25/us/guatemalan-boy-dies-in-us-custody/index.html 3 days ago … … Guatemalan boy has died in the custody of US Customs and Border … second Guatemalan child to die in the agency’s custody this month.

‘A Breaking Point’: Second Child’s Death Prompts New Procedures for …

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/felipe-alonzo-gomez-customs-border-patrol.html 2 days ago … “Moving forward, all children will receive a more thorough hands-on …. Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl, died in Border Patrol custody …

 

note

The agencies that can help most personally and astutely will lose their funding in the current shutdown.

 

(image)

A “Rosie” working on the A-31 Vengeance bomber in Nashville, Tennessee (1943)

Alfred T. Palmer – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsac.1a35371.

Public Domain

 

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Rating Advent

Rating Advent

 

In a code of context,

Might I say that Advent season is

PG-13

It’s not for children alone

But with parental guidance

 

There are themes here

Songs and rites

Children should enjoy

 

All the peace and companionship

That come near

 

But all ideas are not easy

Some need help

For living

 

For Christ is born not for an easy purpose

And winter can be hard

Summer in the south of Earth

We all need help

From time to time

 

Children should have guardians

Grown-up friends like

Luminaria

To help light the way

 

To the place

And all that is to come

Of Christ’s entry into the world

With theirs

With ours

 

C L Couch

 

 

Chris Dodson

Luminaria

Luminaria event at the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. It was such a great night.

 

0

Weeping in Ramah

Weeping in Ramah

 

Indonesia

At Sulawesi

In Palu

Hundreds have been carried away

Souls from bodies

The living weep

They bury who can be recovered

They mourn

 

Might we change the pronoun,

Might we mourn?

They are our sibling hearts

The family

That lost too many children

To vicissitudes

In nature’s anger

Our indifference

 

Rachel weeps in Ramah

Because Babylon has taken

Her children away

Our children

 

C L Couch

 

 

Rescuers evacuate an earthquake survivor by a damaged house following earthquakes and tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sunday. AP PHOTO

Hundreds Die in Indonesia Quake, Tsunami

https://www.recorder.com/Over-800-dead-in-Indonesia-quake-and-tsunami-toll-may-rise-20559009

 

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Dream a Little Dream

Dream a Little Dream

 

Our DACA children

Not their fault

They are busy being children

That is their job

It’s our fault

It’s the fault of Congress

The fault of ICE for

Their current directive

It’s the fault of parents, even though

They are being parents, doing

What parents do

Bear children

And rear them

Why can’t the children stay

And what must split the family

Small, complete citizens have

Entitlement

The same as you or I

Immigrants all

Except for maybe woolly mammoths

 

What is there

To catch someone at—parents

For having children

Here

Was that a stratagem, maybe

For some

Is that enough for cynicism

A rationale for trading

On children

They are the future, yes

More importantly, they are the

Present

They are today

And we are judged

Judging them

 

Dreamers allow children America

 

C L Couch

 

 

http://www.bread.org/blog/prayer-dreamers

God of all,

We struggle to welcome those we don’t know to join our communities.
Please guide our actions so we may be a reflection of your love.

We struggle to find common ground with those who are from different places and have different customs.
Please guide our words so we speak with charity and hospitality.

We struggle to remember our own times of transition and uncertainty.
Please send your Holy Spirit to challenge our assumptions.

May we continue to seek new ways to find you in our lives.
May we Share the Journey with one another, every day. We ask all this in your holy name, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

 

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Look

Look

 

I know the children

And I know the children die

It happens every day

All the time

In real fires and in our strategies

Denying food

Denying safety

Denying home

 

Do we turn away to say

Not mine

Or do we look at it

To say

All ours

 

C L Couch

 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/24/new-york-city-house-fire-kills-five-including-three-children?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+USA+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=222999&subid=16706344&CMP=GT_US_collection

 

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Teal Pumpkin Project (haiku)

Teal Pumpkin Project

Leave un-allergenic treats

On Hallowe’en porch

 

http://www.foodallergy.org/teal-pumpkin-project#.WABLLiQ5pcw

 

https://www.foodallergy.org/image/teal-pumpkin-2016/Email-Sig3.fw.png

Save

2

Our Many Faces

Our Many Faces

 

Aleppo, yes, I know

 

Sounds like a sixth

Marx brother from

Post-Vaudevillian

Capers

 

But children die there

From what war takes

 

Which is all right

Since we don’t value

Children, anyway:

 

If we did, we’d see

They were not shot

And killed, they never

Suffered in want

Of food or a good

School

 

We’d value them like

Prizes won in the

Most precious bingo

Game or ski-ball

 

We’d sit with them,

We’d watch them eat,

See that they are

Clean inside and out

 

And have temerity

To ask for help when

Needed

 

We’d celebrate the

Family that we are

Part of, even if we’re

Not their parents

 

Because in the most

Worldly way we are

 

We’d say, it’s for the

Children; and we’d

Mean it

 

We’d change

Everything to have

Them safe and well

And jiggly playful at

Home

 

We’d do the world

Right this time

 

C L Couch

9

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

(headline for news story of the fact)

 

E stands for emergency

F for fund

 

And the C—well, that’s

For the halves of us

 

Our own,

Who deserve innocence

In which to incubate

 

Play and siblings whole

On learning rolls

 

Harmed only through

Mischief cared for

In embracing arms

 

Rob these ones of life

When you die

They will inherit

And make a world

As hate-able

As they find

 

When we treat them

 

And on

the altars

of the world

 

 

UNICEF: Half of All Refugees Are Children

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Toll-Taking

Toll-Taking

 

Death at UCLA, teacher

And then shooter, then

 

Spouse found, murdered

Before

 

Death-number increases

Of soldiers lost to flood

At Fort Hood in Texas

 

Migrants’ lives lost

Beyond counting, since

Too many die unknown

 

In Mediterranean waters

Or on western Asian

Battlefields

 

Nigerian school children

Lives erased, such is the

The plan of those who

Took them

 

And these are in the

Process of becoming old

Well-worn news, such is

Our way

 

Though beyond blame

Is the stress of bearing

Our world, a planet of

Dying

 

And of sorrow

 

Atlas shrugged, the novel

Claims?  Atlas should

Have wept

 

Charon demands gold

For passage, though the

Real currency is life

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