Why?

sunning themselves safely,
just out of sea's reach,
the hunter gatherer finally rests
on a budget brochure Tunisian beach.

a community at prayer
with open arms, welcomes the wolf;
in loving God's creatures
they can come to no harm,
but then prayers for the living
become prayers of the dying.

school girls giggle happily
in a Nigerian school yard
role playing a better life, 
that might not be so hard;
again,
prayers for the living
prayer of the dying

deluded we are by our own transition
from womb to world we move,
to a world not shared
as our beginnings would have us believe.


now explain to me again how is it the boy that was raised with love
can be taken by terrorism . . .
a stunned grandfather asks.

© niall oconnor 2015