S

Today my heart wept

Pierced by a vision

My conscience impaled

I grieved in silence

Blue eyes cried in fear

Tears no shield to pain

Child’s face alone

Amid mass transience.

Hollow voices stilled

What sin did commit

Facades downcast

No cries from the throng.

As scimitar fell

Past knowing smile

Released from doubt

He knew them wrong.

No sin this child

Nor fault he own

Pain is gone

His pew a throne.

• Dedicated to an unnamed, fourteen-year-old Christian boy murdered by ISIS.