Poetry

BBCWS photo

By

Selwyn Milborrow

thoughts after trump’s cruel act of separating children and mothers at the mexican border

no madonna and child painting

can match the excruciating cry

of a child separated from a parent

being a mother to a child

is the most basic relationship

known to human beings

it’s an innate longing for belonging

birthed in the womb’s warmth

and beyond a cold grave grows

for memories don’t die like people

it’s the inside reaching out

like a mother’s tender touch

becoming love’s life-giving brush

on a canvas called life

suffer the little children

and forbid them not

but what do we know

what do we know

of life and love’s austere

and it’s lonely corners

hardly spoken of…

Selwyn Milborrow

Selwyn is an author, poet and podcaster. His poetry and short stories in English, Afrikaans, and Dutch languages have been published in various international anthologies. Two textbooks with his poetry are used as prescribed texts for high school learners. His first novel ‘Shades of forgiveness’ was published in 2017.