Gandhi… Poem by John Tansey

Gandhi…
“And a Child Shall Lead Them”


As a young boy, my bones still growing,
I was given to sudden fractures or breaks.

Thin and frail. My self-assurance was fragile,
The callous toss of an insult would knock me down.

Given to colds in Winter weather and bed-ridden,

From my window I would cry over the harming
Of both the helpless and hapless ones.

I was born during an Earthquake
And raised along its fault line.

At seven, the separation of my parents was the death
Of God; I developed Asthma as a way of crying out “No! ”.

With the rapid heartbeat of a sparrow, nervous tics
and head twitching in the fear of surviving each moment,

Any loud sound and like an animal, sensing danger,
I would head for the higher ground.

In Sparta, a baby, malformed at birth,
would be tossed upon the rocks below;

They could not see in a baby, born lame,
The wisdom his personal pain of survival could bestow them.

When young, my Asthma attacked my mind with a lack of oxygen:
Hallucinating, delusions or visions, I suffered their truths.

And wherever the world, already, smolders from too much anger,
What will humble it is another frightened, timid child to show it sorrow…


John Tansey 12.5.08

Copyright ©2007 John Thomas Tansey