Behold the child
Innocent of eye,
With pigmy arms outstretched
To grasp a world unlearned;
And with what zest
He sallies forth in quest
Each day the splendour growing,
Each hour the vision glowing
With some new bequest
Behold the wonder
Of a child intent
To seize life’s tissue,
On creation bent;
And with what joy
He grasps the world, his toy,
Fecund with fascination
To feed imagination
In perennial ploy.
But now behold the grief
Of innocence rent,
The child, full grown,
On conquest bent;
And with what greed
He grasps the world to bleed,
Each day the splendour fading
His golden vision trading
For the rapine creed.
Behold the Man!
Innocent of eye
With arms of love outstretched
To heal a world undone.
And with what zeal
We rally round to kill,
Rejecting perennial plan
We raise the child-like Man
On ‘Outcast Hill’.
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27.7.1966
Ron Cretchley
www.thinkingpoet.co.uk
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