Childless

I have dedicated “Childless” to the bereaved mothers of the Holocaust and the ongoing Palestinian Nakba, and to the mothers of Ukraine.

“Childless” has been published by Poetry Super Highway as part of its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day poetry issue. I have dedicated “Childless” to the mothers of the Holocaust and to the mothers of the ongoing Palestinian Nakba, who have lost children due to man’s inhumanity to man. Also, to the mothers of Ukraine for the same reason.

Childless
by Michael R. Burch

How can she bear her grief?
Mightier than Atlas, she shoulders the weight
of one fallen star.

My poem “Childless” made me think of this touching haiku by Hattori Ransetsu:

The childless woman,
how tenderly she caresses
homeless dolls ...
—Hattori Ransetsu, loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Epitaph for a Palestinian Child
by Michael R. Burch

I lived as best I could, and then I died.
Be careful where you step: the grave is wide.