Who is my neighbor?
by Rick Brentlinger
(Pace, FL, USA)
Will you be my neighbor?
So patiently they struggle on
From day to dreary day;
And never glimpse a ray of hope
To light their weary way.
The listless eyes, the spindly limbs,
Their future only dark;
Does nowhere in their spirit,
Yet glow a single spark?
Is hope so dead, are hearts so cold
As not to even care;
Or feel the crying misery
So many millions share?
Can we ignore the desperate plight
Of children 'round the world?
Or will we someday bow in shame
As condemnation's hurled?
If situations were reversed
And we, bowed down with care;
Would not we wait with hopeful heart,
For help, our load to bear?
Would not we wish for some way out
And shed a mournful tear;
And long for comfort in the night
To soothe our childish fear?
Could we believe our fellow man
With wealth and treasure vast;
When seeing us in desperate need
Would shrug and walk on past?
And still the starving children die
And rich men shed no tear;
But their day of retribution
Is hastening swiftly near.
Return to Poems
Return to 101 Community
Return to
Gay Christian 101 Home Page
Photo by Cate Turton, 12 July 2011,
Department for International Development.
Hungry child in a Doctors Without Borders
treatment tent, Dolo Ado camp near
Ethiopia's border with Somalia.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
