Humanities' Unspoken Shame Poem by Jackie R. Kays

Out of large, expressionless brown
eyes peering from her small, gaunt
black face, shinning in the broiling
African sun…in her little faded,
ragged flour sack dress…
she silently stood.

Her matted hair, protruding stomach,
and starving angular, motionless body
patiently waiting, waiting. She held a
small tin sauce pan in her tiny hand.

From time to time she wipes the sweat,
flies and gnats form her cheerless face.

Five years old and all she has ever
known is starvation, war, genocide
and disease.
Her blameless plight, to be born in
this God forsaken place.

Like this small wretched child.
Thousands more all over the world
suffer these same deprivations
day in and day out.
The unanswerable question is…
Why?

Humanities' unspoken shame!