Through The Shadow Of Death Poem by Jennifer Rosario

As I walk along cobblestones
I see the drowning faces of yesterday's infants
pale from the winter skies.
The youth, with vacant eyes and dread-locked hair,
press cigarettes between their fingers
like the life they dare to release.
The gypsy children laugh as they run
in dried up fields of dreams;
all knowing they have sticks for walls to return to.
Young men in green berets march along sidewalks
with guns bound to their chests
and hearts strapped to their sleeves.
As I walk along tourist infected alleyways
I try not to stumble over the kneeling beggars
who stare at the earth in shame.
In a city that sleeps with an eerie wrestle,
even the shadows hide
between the cracks in the walls.
The distant sounds of bombings past
still haunt the weary elders.
In springtime, the vibrant sun
shakes the darkness that has covered so long.
Their eyes flinch and
sag with the weight of their sorrow.
Somewhere amidst the grand cathedral
hummed through the soprano of chorus boys
You are here.
Your life travels through lonely corridors,
pulling shadows from their hell,
making beggars rise from defeat.
Hearts will pulse inside their chests.
Outcasts will find a home.
Atomic screams will cease.
Eyes will be full of a violent laughter
and You will spring forth like a river
to free a nation from captivity.