A Child Lies Alone

Somewhere, a child lies alone.

Somewhere, beyond where the eye sees

Past where the ear hears

Farther than the hand feels

A child lies alone.

He is behind that hill, sleeping in grass too tall to look through.

He is under that bridge, deep in the forever running water.

He is hidden in that cave, surrounded by darkness no light could penetrate.

He is around that valley, under a willow tree counting leaves.

He is down that road, a mirage in the summer´s heat.

He is right in front of you, and yet you look through him.

So he lies down, letting you pass over him.

He lies alone.

And alone he shall lie, for no one will find him.

Reviews

[Dave]

Mae - unfortunately you are so right. There are so, so many children that lie alone. So many without a decent meal that they can remember eating. So many without a bed to sleep in. So, so many who are fearful of going to sleep at night not knowing what they may find in the morning. You present a very powerful dark image.

[Planet x]

sad and scary ,
No child can be ever alone
You described a dark world , in few words

[Daniealla]

Wow this is great! It really paints an amazing picture

[mae23]

Thank you so much!

[Mr.Writer]

This really engaged me and wanted to know more about the child Mae! This was well worded and expressed all those emotions of loneliness, and even the imagery of the summer hear and willow trees!
Keep it up :)

[mae23]

Thank you! I wasn't really sure what this poem meant to me so I am looking forward to seeing what it means to others!

[Mr.Writer]

No problem :)

[Brett Hernan]

I found this work created images of lost, homeless, runaway children, hitch-hiking, abducted by strangers, standing, unknowingly, hoping for a brighter future and waiting expectantly for that to happen, beside a desert highway, unnoticed by the cars, speeding past, as their tiny bodies, made invisible, disappear in the rising distortions of the long road's heat shimmer,

'a mirage in the summer´s heat.'

Becoming just a ghost, as the result of undiscovered murder, and yet, at too tender an age to have even understood that they had died, forgetting the brutality that's been inflicted upon them and traveling throughout the landscape you've described.

Identity less, buried in a shallow grave,

'under leaves',

or thrown in a river...

'He is under that bridge, deep in the forever running water.'

The use of the word 'forever' to me here suggests mortality and the extinguishing of it.

This poem is like the echo of name called out in vain hope of a reply, fading away and of which you've caught just the last few indecipherable syllables...
It's filled by the despairing of the utter loss of their great desire, the dashed hope of finding somewhere they might feel is their home.

'Farther than the hand feels

A child lies alone.'

Slayed by cruel hands...
Pushed away by preoccupied hands....
Unnoticed and ignored by a parent's negligence....

Also, conversely, I saw it as a description of redemption, descriptions of places where a child might hide their mind and heart away safely, and become someone with understanding equipped to survive and made resilient by their cruel circumstances.

'He is behind that hill, sleeping in grass too tall to look through.'

The entire piece is capable of being taken both ways, for the death this child dies alone, may be just that, or not a physical death at all but an emotional, a spiritual one which causes a transition from childhood to a place where the emotional void overwhelms so greatly that death is the only way to describe it.
This work contains a vast array of non-linear elements that allow it a great breadth of both intellectual and emotional impact. It has a universality about it.
I'd also be interested to see what others think of it, and thank-you for the opportunity to lean my heart toward this child, and toward all of those children it describes. The melancholy it caused within me, it's an honour to be able to feel that sorrow as a memorial to all of those sadly lost children.

Thank-you, to you, mae23, for sharing this poem.

[mae23]

Thank you Brett, what you've said about this poem was beautiful and I am so glad it touched you in those ways. Thank you.