My poem “The nameless child” published in Scarlet Leaf Review

/ Andrada Costoiu

The nameless child

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: George Hodan, “Sad Boy” 

​The bomb that fell flattened his world,
And drew corridors of fire
That led everywhere and nowhere,
Toward a future that kept hanging.

The tearless silence was floating,
Dressed with silk black cap,
As faith was rewriting the lists
For new havens.

His eyes were closed, but it was bright inside,
He remembered the taste of chocolate
And how he ran up and down the hills
Over the desert.

He will soon hear the others,
Crawling like him, on their canes of hope,
Their skills got sharper every time.

He’ll join them in the quest for 
Their food for tomorrow:
Wild mushrooms and rabbits.
Sometimes they will go by the airfield,
Wondering loud where the storks were,
And why was their place taken by uniformed men.

He felt his body burning,
Heard shouting, faint, then rising,
He smelled his father pomade and felt the clutching of his arms.
He was tired of running in a race that had no stopwatch, 
Besides he already won,
Of all the things, this war has never been able to embargo his dreams.

This is a poem I have written few years ago. Like everything I write( like everything that we writers write), there is a story behind it. Back then I was doing field work in Jordan about war refugees, and I was spending time listening to Syrian war refugees recounting their stories. Some of them had their children around when I was taking their interview. I was struck, I knew war from far away but this was a first account, as close as I could get. I would finish the interviews, and then I’d go transcribe and I would feel these people, and their pain even more than I didn’t before. Their faces would come to mind. This poem is about one of those faces.

Click here for the link in its publication in The Scarlet Leaf Review.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2020- . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2020 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

My new poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.

30 thoughts on “My poem “The nameless child” published in Scarlet Leaf Review”

  20. In the nineties for President Clinton. I volunteered to go Bosnia and three time to Africa for food, water and medicine missions. It taught me the strength of the human spirit. I saw terrible things and good things. I learn. My life wasn’t so hard. I wish we would learn. Don’t need walls of separations, we need offers of friendship and safe place for the people who had lost everything. Thank you dear Andrada for sharing the needed and powerful words.

    Liked by 1 person

  21. Thank you John! I have learned the same way, by being among people who lost everything. These were hard lessons! I hope that in the future people would stop fanning themselves with folded newspapers and instead would go see, go experience life…..and then extend a hand to those in need….

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Me too dear Andrada. President Clinton open doors to new friendship. He send us soldiers to help and try to save life. I wish we gave food, water and medicine to countries in need. Not guns. Us, who want peace for our children and all the children. Must gather as one. Have some fun and stay safe my friend.

    Liked by 1 person

  28. I hope you don’t mind I feel it’s so relivant to your poem. James Blunt was a serving soldier and served in Boznia. He writes from knowledge. Here is song he wrote about his time in Bosnia. Not all his song are about war obviously.

    So many children. 💜💜

    Liked by 1 person

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