Out of the ashes ~ Sonnet (dedicated to a friend's tragedy)

A spark of death ignited such despair

it burned and burned and left just smoke and dust

her eyes, now wet, with questions in their stare

the dream of home sweet home have now gone bust.

How cruel life seems when suffering comes near

The rich, the poor, we all suffer as one

Can't we do more than merely shed a tear

Our ignorance carries a smoking gun.

Allow her pain to be one with your soul

Allow your heart to feel the loss she felt

Allow her peace to be your worthy goal

and then alone, your soul, your heart, will melt.

But for the grace of God, pray, there go I

Can we build wings to make her house dream fly?

Author's Note

I've been absent from the Cafe for a few months to focus on writing a novel (without succeeding, though) but a tragedy in the life of a person dear to me caused me to write this poem together with a appeal to forward my fundraising campaign on your social media. Helloise Kleynhans is a lady I met in South Africa over the summer holiday. She is a domestic worker and I met her when was cleaning my home too. A few weeks ago, her house burned down. She lost everything she owned. She and her 19 year old son now share a single bed in someone else's house. I started a crowdfunding campaign online (similar to GoFundMe) and we had a great start to raising the $ 3300 required to replace the house she lived in. Yeah, that's the small amount it takes to build someone a house in Africa. Sorry, I forgot how to put links directly to play (like songs) but here are two lings, one, a YouTube video showing the actual damage, and the other link, the page of the "Backabuddy". Thank you in advance for sharing.

You Tube:
https://youtu.be/nKk-aEn1eog

Backabuddy:
https://www.backabuddy.co.za/helloise-kleynhans

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

Honest, direct and strong words shared my dear friend.
"How cruel life seems when suffering comes near
The rich, the poor, we all suffer as one
Can't we do more than merely shed a tear
Our ignorance carries a smoking gun."
The above lines are solid. Where I live in Michigan. More than half the businesses are gone. We will all taste the pain, if we don't repair. Thank you for sharing the outstanding poetry.
Coyote

[Einstein Noodle]

nice to see you back Sleepless! i like the theme of your sonnet .. i am not very good at critiquing their restrictive form so won't even try ... i truly believe we suffer as a whole .. after all we sin as a whole as well ... when empathy is actually felt .. i believe the pain such as your friend in her loss of home, is lessened .. sometimes we may think we are alone and our pain is immense .. even so .. it would be unbearable if others .. even strangers did not feel it in part as well ...
E.