The Play

The poor want to be rich,
The rich don't want to be poor.
Do we really want the system to change?
Or only arguing over who should play which part.

Chicken Street

What an interesting name…
Street urchins surround us
Some girls but mostly boys
Angelic faces and voices pleading for "Just one dollar"
This has become a way of life for them
No school, no way out.
This is big business
And they are their families' bread-winners.
Me, I'm a big spender
Forty dollars fills both my pockets
Bulging with Afghani money.
20,000 Afghanis can buy
A bottle of water.
Big spender indeed!

Always With Us

"There will always be people in need," the Torah says,
"So care for the poor"
But Jesus said, "The poor will always be with us but I will not."
Is it our mission to care for the needy
Or rather to care about an individual in need?
If I see a limbless old man as needy,
I might never recognize him if we were to meet again
In heaven.

Finger Pointing

Maybe it was a mine made in the United States,
Or maybe in Iran,
Or the United Kingdom,
Or Italy,
Or Russia…
It's easy to point fingers
That is, if you still have fingers to point with.

The IDP Camp

"What do you most need?"
I asked the elder
"Food", he replied
"I'm not a cow, I'm a human like you"
"What you need, I need"
He didn't need to tell me that.
I didn't need to ask.

The Circus

Yes, I imagine we might look like a circus

The caravan comes into town
And clown after clown piles out of the car
In endless procession.
And a people who know suffering all too well
For an instant can remember
What it is to smile, to laugh, to cry.

No leader wants to be a clown
But both are noble professions.
And perhaps the solution
To a tragedy that seems like a bad joke
Is to be able to be comfortable being both leader and clown.
What would be the cost?

Maybe my pride.

Kabul

20 people, 2 bathrooms
And one needs constant plunging.
That's fine.
OK -- not good.
But hey, it's Kabul!

What's that bang?
Just a rocket, four doors down. No one hurt.
That's fine.
OK -- not good.
But hey…

Mono Lake

Yes, I've seen something like this before…
At Mono Lake.

But those weren't homes.

Faith

The boy has more faith in America than God.
His religious leaders after all
Went to Mecca and failed.
I don't want to be his god,
One God is more than enough.
His religious leaders were right
But perhaps they may need to try again.

Simple Logic

You broke it, shouldn't you fix it?
The logic works
For a window broken by a stray baseball
Or a boy's body broken by a stray bomb.

There is a difference with the boy…
Shouldn't we want to help
Whether or not it was our fault?

Making a Difference

What is a drop of water in a sea of despair?
One drop of food coloring in a bucket of water can change much…
A drop of blue can bring the coolness of reason
A drop of red can bring the fire of passion
A drop of green can bring serenity and peace
But too many drops of too many colors can change the water
To murky black.