“The Children” by Dilruba Ahmed (poetry ’09)

The Children

How each one is taken  
with care from car 

to school doorstep, each one 

hand-in-hand with an adult.  
How the mothers 

and fathers kiss 

their foreheads, first 
pushing aside their bangs 

or smoothing 

a stray wisp.  One 
parent straightens 

her daughter’s velvet 

headband; another wipes 
dried oatmeal 

from his son’s pink lips.  

[…continue reading “The Children” as well as two other poems at Four Way Review. You can also find another poem, “When the Time Comes,” at Blackbird.]