and weep

Photographers and film-makers
take their images of devastation,
and weep.

Reporters, clad in flak jackets,
tell their story of human failure to live in peace,
and weep.

Old people,
once more sift through the rubble of their homes,
heavy with despair.
and weep.

Medicine men and women
try to bind up wounds,
and weep.

Parents watch children play
among diseased and crumbled streets
of a lost childhood,
and weep.

Mothers, fathers, grandparents
hold bundles of the dead,
hearts bursting with grief,
and weep

We, who cannot bear their pain,
switch our televisions to football matches
and bake-offs
and try not to weep.

And God …
seeing once again
what his children are doing to one another,
climbs upon a cross
and weeps.

[Mr. G. Friday 10th November 2023]