Doomed

Margaret V.Doran



They demonstrated on the courthouse steps
demanding their rights
parading their gaunt-faced children
with the luminous and liquid eyes
and our hearts lurched

We were compelled
to correct the inequities
within our society
for those children who lingered
in our minds

We worked
to move the powers
and provide more money and more food
for hopeless children
to have pink and chubby cheeks

We watched them
in the courthouse
defenseless against charges
of drug abuse and welfare fraud
and child neglect

And our hearts lurched
at the sight
of the doomed parents
with the hollow-cheeked children
who had no voice


Copyright © 1997 Margaret V. Doran. All rights reserved.

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Updated July 1, 1999
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