These children aren’t empty

The children I have met are HIV positive

Parents who are dead that’s double negative

Picked up because if left they would die

The loss they have suffered is set deep in their eye

You see the children have been rescued from drowning

Sinking in a sea of disease that was swallowing

But a hand grabbed their hand and lifted them out

Of the depths of this pain now their beginning to shout

These children aren’t empty

They run in bare foot where I tiptoe in flip flops, and plenty

Of welcome as I embrace their cuddles and smiles

Back home my culture would scream “paedophile”

To reject this affection would be to deny them their giving

I am here to receive not just giving, that’s living

Pouring out from our insides a torrent of talents and gifts

To each other and that’s why my hand lifts

In applause or in praise

In wonder I gaze

The children play for hours without technology

This may seem obvious but what’s the psychology?

They grabbed the skipping rope from me and organised games with it

I turned up late for the football they said “NO”, that’s not in my script

That’s not helpless or powerless that’s not lacking

In self-esteem or in confidence, this white man needs sacking!

Instead I am backing these children to turn loss into laughter

A medicine that can’t be brought off the shelf, a corporate disaster!

These children have an identity and been given a name

Struggle and suffering comes to all in life’s game

They are not higher or lower in these things than me

We are the same but in a different paradigm you see

They don’t need my pity

So I try and show them some dignity

And then I may learn the beauty of their humanity

THESE CHILDREN AREN’T EMPTY

Written by Mark 

May 2012