Poems Of The Children Poem by Gert Strydom

"Jesus, however, said, "Let the little children
come to me, and stop keeping them away,
because the kingdom from heaven
belongs to people like these."
Mathew 19: 14.


Poem of the children (1)

(after Lina Spies)

Naked I see him with his swollen-stomach
when with stretched-out hands he dares,
while snot makes lines on his cheeks
and I am touched by his innocence and hunger,
I think that he would really like sweets,
where black and white and brown are all extradited,
and nowhere can I miss the need of others,
unemployed people are: every mother and father are disgraced
when with stretched-out hands he dares.


Poem of the children (2)

(after Lina Spies)

Do not stop the children to come for help and love
and with the harsh merciless world I am speechless,
where the soldiers of Renamo in Mozambique were only children
and rape, murder and killing did fit into their world
but like this our world is broken, askew and unjust
and in my country children are missing and away,
while nobody see any value in them
but still God do turn the lives of people and children around
and with the harsh merciless world I am speechless.


Poem of the children (3)

A young girl of sixteen asks me for bread
she will do any work. Very great is her need,
to beg at traffic-lights is for her an incomprehensible thing.
For every child that is extradited I pray for change to come
while socialism brings poverty and hunger,
where she do not want to sell herself for money
and in her young beautiful eyes I see trust and hope
she says that she lives with her grandmother and her mother and father are dead,
she will do any work. Very great is her need.


Poem of the children (4)

(after Lina Spies)

Behind Russian lines in the Ukraine children are abducted away,
children with parents and those without are being made orphans,
they get Russian passports and they are transported to Russia,
it's in a country with millions of people that they do disappear.

I can feel the fear and confusion

and without water, food or medicine those that remain must learn Russian,
from people with a strange language and just except harsh treatment
where they use propaganda and continuously do indoctrinate
as if Russians wants to protect the children that they meet.

I can notice the incomprehension and desperation,

others are murdered, misused, their teeth hit out and they are raped,
their parents killed in front of them and left just there
and mere children are extradited into great powerlessness
where they will die if they do not do as the Russians say,

the disconcertion and defenceless-pain is far too much.

Bigger boys are thrown into wells with rotting water
if they refuse to join the Russian army,
are being send without training against the enemy
and few return alive from the Russian bombardments,

the stench of death hangs over every living thing.


Poem of the children (5)

(after Lina Spies)

Biden,
teachers
LGBTQ+ activists,
Putin,
Presidents, kings and leaders,
soldiers,
adults

do not indoctrinate the children against Me,
do not distort and twist their humanity into your will,
do not get pleasure from their suffering,
or fabricate to them absolute lies,

do not misuse, twist and rape them,
do not let them loose hope like slaves in powerlessness

I am omnipotent, did as a man walk here,
from childhood followed the will of my Father.
I brought love to a world without hope,
on a cross I was nailed and was persecuted,

turn your lives and those of the children to Me:
for every child I will demand an account when I come.

[Reference: "Lied van die kinders" (Song of the children) by Lina Spies.]