Tears of the Children

By Joseph Warkreh T-Toe

We close our eyes,

We plug our ears,

We seal our lips,

Then we turn our backs.

The children are crying,

Crying as strangers take them.

Their mothers are looking;

With tears rolling down their cheeks.

With broken hearts,

They too are taken away.

The stranger said,

They do not belong.

This is us today;

This is America today.

Don’t give us your tired,

Don’t give us your poor,

Don’t give us your bundled masses…

Read the signs dammit!

“Refugees not welcome!

Illegals not welcome!”

Hear this Black and Brown!

We no longer have humanity!

We no longer have compassion!

When they cry,

We hear nothing.

When they cry,

We see nothing.

And when their tears roll…

We feel nothing!

This is who we are today.

T-Toe is the Associate Editor of FunTimes Magazine. His anthology of poems and short stories, The Voice of my Silence (revised edition pending publication) was published in 1980. He is also the author of a children’s book, Fatu and Lake Piso and a second children’s book manuscript, The Adventure of Little Chief Dakhenah. Added to this is a screenplay, Belle Yella, which he wrote few years ago.

SIDEBAR

OUTRAGE

The current U.S. Administration is separating 100s of children each week from their parents and overwhelming the Department of Health and Human Services system which already has 11,000 immigrants under the age of 18 in its custody who haven’t been placed with relatives or other sponsors, as the law dictates. It’s a horrific image … first of all, young children being taken from their parents, and secondly, being put in what critics are labeling prison camps. By Cheri Avery Black, Editor