Jump to content

  • Join Gay Authors

    Join us for free and follow your favorite authors and stories.

Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

By Chance or Appointment - 9. The Children At Your Door

I found this amongst my older things. I do not think I have posted it before. Any errors of form or detail are mine alone.

They come beneath the blanket of the night

with nothing but a vision to sustain

themselves throughout their long and labored flight,

by means of transportation most arcane

a harbor without hazard to obtain,

wherever they might hope to come ashore

although the unforgiving will restrain

and bar the children waiting at your door.

 

Flint-hearted ones with quivers full of spite

would turn an eye bewintered with disdain

because strange tongues and customs may rewrite

their transitory power on the wane,

a privileged position to maintain;

so brandishing their arrows all the more

they curse creased faces at the windowpane

and bar the children waiting at your door.

 

Cruel insults volley, mean and impolite,

but ever spend their malice all in vain,

for they who journey toward a future bright,

to freely work and love where none can chain

their hearts to preconceptions inhumane,

will shine as once our ancestors before

who toiled upon the broad and fruited plain,

until you barred the children at your door.

 

Now bend your ear, and listen, if you deign,

to them whose courage shakes us to the core;

and you, who would no valiant heart profane,

why bar the children waiting at your door?


Thank you for taking time to read this Ballade. If you have any comments or thoughts to leave, know that I appreciate anything you may have to say.
Copyright © 2022 Parker Owens; All Rights Reserved.
  • Love 9
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
You are not currently following this story. Be sure to follow to keep up to date with new chapters.

Recommended Comments

Chapter Comments

weinerdog
1 hour ago, Parker Owens said:

Thank you. My mind was filled with images of children at Ellis Island, and in modern detention centers too.  The Ballade is a satisfying form, if enough rhymes can be found.

Thank you for this Ballade and for explaining your influence in writing this I was thinking of the immigrant children separated from their families while reading this 

Edited by weinerdog
  • Love 5
Parker Owens
7 hours ago, pvtguy said:

All I could see while reading were the children put in the cages due to the policies of the last administration in the U.S.  I can also see it as a larger view, as you mention, to the closing of the doors to immigrants.  Very powerful!  Great writing!

Thanks very much for your response to this. I can only feel sorrow for the families that have been played as pawns in political games and put through ordeals in the past years. Unfortunately, this poem is as fresh now as when it was written. I’m grateful for your comments, and for your reading. 

  • Love 2
View Guidelines

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Newsletter

    Sign Up and get an occasional Newsletter.  Fill out your profile with favorite genres and say yes to genre news to get the monthly update for your favorite genres.

    Sign Up
×
×
  • Create New...