[W T Clark]

.
.
.

Complexities are hard to kill:
they multiply, like the little children who are dying
(which is, we know, a tragedy). Still,
we wish the children were just dead, instead of dying

since to watch whatsoever dying
child is tragic: but to have them all lose their lives
(which is, we know, our fault) with that constant, endless dying!
& you must also know there's dying on both sides

& it's our children who must lose their lives
looking exactly like the other children who are dying,
the ones who die that there might be "dying on both sides":
that we can't show the world our little ones, our dying

without it thinking of those other kids who die:
whose deaths were gospel (someone should have warned them)
the moment we heard our children's cries.
& so we kill those children just to mourn them,

whose world was cruel (we had no language in which to warn them).
We know the situation's complicated — still,
we have grown skillful now, despite our mourning,
& since complexities are hard to kill.
.
.
.