An old story
When my children were small
they read a book,
“cars and trucks and things …”
and they loved it –
do you remember?
Now the story is,
car and trucks and things that kill,
and instead of small hands
pushing match box toys
and imagining adventures,
there are lethal weapons on wheels.
Today’s news of sorrow
outside a mosque in Finsbury Park,
joins a list of stories
filled with tears,
and a threat of terror
that keeps many too afraid
to even walk out at all.
I open the book for my grandchildren –
see the ambulance, I say,
the fire truck, the bakery van
they heal and they help –
it doesn’t have to be scary.
Gifts in Open Hands 