Branches, Blood, And Rocks Poem by MARINA GIPPS

(for GWB)

A typical day of a lone child.
His bobbing head over the sticky pavement
of tentacles and wings that no longer fly.
He had been told of his own fault.
Thinking of Mother and of Father,
his works of no work,
his leaky passage is embittered,
his own musts and entrapment.
Those potent missiles and their potential
of shooting branches and havocking minds.
Bombs killing birds and amazingly,
those boulders miss his feet.
Mother complains of his dirty socks
and those holes of dirt on flesh.
(Daddy speaks of mommy's head.)
A little boy dusts his combat boots
with sweet, saltine spit.
There is no blood, only a selfish pain.
A yell of 'let go' and killer 'let me be'.