Day 426

Bring water to the tent
so the children can drink.
So they can wash their faces
stained with tears, with dust, with fear, with
disbelief.  Bring water
so they can cool themselves,
so they can clean their wounds.
It’s been long since they bathed, since they felt
soothing hot water run down
their small backs.  No water
to wash the sticky fluids of birth
from their newborn brother, no water
to soak the cloth laid on their mother’s
forehead.  Bring water so they can
heal.  Bring water so they can go on living.