What Good Are Our Tears? Poem by Michael Burch

What Good Are Our Tears?
by Michael R. Burch

What good are our tears?
They will not spare the dying their anguish.
What good is our concern
to a child sick of living, waiting to perish?

What good, the warm benevolence of tears
without action?
What help, the eloquence of prayers,
or a pleasant benediction?

Before this day is gone,
how many more will die
with bellies swollen, wasted limbs,
and eyes too parched to cry?

I fear for our souls
as I hear the faint lament
of their souls departing...
mournful, and distant.

How pitiful our "effort, "
yet how fatal its effect.
If they died, then surely we killed them,
if only with neglect.

I wrote this poem for children who are suffering from starvation, malnourishment, and neglect in places like Afghanistan, The Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Gaza, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Sudan, Timor Leste, Yemen and Zambia. Keywords/Tags: Child, Child Abuse, Children, Neglect, Poverty, Malnourishment, Starvation, Illness, Disease, Death, Lament, Tears, Prayers, Action