![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/f4-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
*Photo by SL Granum<\/em><\/p>\n
\n
Carol Macfie Lange <\/b><\/p>\n
I knew it, too late
\nAs I leaned on the gate,
\nthe guns were upon us
\nwith violence and hate.
\nThe planes were all leaving
\nto cries of NO, WAIT!
\nCrowds surging and heaving
\nrunning and weaving
\nto alter the path of their fate,
\nclinging and begging
\nkicking and crying,
\nhumanity sighing,
\nsome of them bleeding,
\narms aloft, pleading,
\nand hope swiftly dying.<\/p>\n
I kissed the soft skin
\nof my small frightened girl
\nAnd whispered, “I love you
\nand you’re going to fly,
\nwith heaven above you
\nsafe earth down below
\nAnd your Mama will follow
\nwherever you go”.
\nI met the wide eyes of the soldier
\nwho stood on the gate’s other side,
\njust a boy like my son, not much older.
\nWithout any time to decide
\nI threw her up high, high and over,
\nhe caught her and held her so close,
\nkissed her sweet head and consoled her
\nand she looked like the heart of a rose.
\nHe looked down and smiled
\nat my little girl-child.
\n“We’ll save her,” he said, and covered her head.
\n“Please tell me her name, also yours.”
\nI shouted the names, they were lost in the winds,
\nwinds of fear and of planes flying high.
\nI gripped the black bars of the shuddering gate
\nAnd knew that my child would not die.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n *Photo by SL Granum<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n
\n