Haitian Boy With One Shoe

Haiti Disaster:  News Story: A young visiting female reporter finds a child's bones; and,  one shoe along the highway.  She was deeply disturbed by it.  This poem is her experience.
                           ~~~~~~
      Haitian Boy With One Shoe
                         *
      boy with one small shoe
      ribs in pieces
      pelvis, too,
      no feet at all
      spinal column--size small,
      wrist, and forearm
      bleaching in the Haitian heat
      marrow warm and sweet
                   *
     No mother's sleepless moans
     bring Haiti's lost sons home
     gasping
     gasping
     still
     no release for her flesh or bone
     *
     Unknown
     woman by Lafiteau
     covers a small boy's bones
     with prayers and gray beached stones
     and with the one small
     deflated shoe, she marks this final peace.
     She sighs, "No, not better,-- yet complete."

News Story: 21 dead babies were found floating down the river in China in plastic bags from the local hospital. [assumed to be abortions]

Making Room for 21

Lost. now and forever
each and every one
Chinese daughters
and Chinese sons

Lost. now and forever
each and every one
souls floating
floating away
for one stingy day
at play in the sun.