Louise Ayres Garnett: ARMENIAN FIELDS

FOR ARMENIAN ORPHANS

Suffer little children to come unto me . . . .
O Christ, they come,
Suffering nakedly,
Starved and dumb.

Feebly they crawl across the earth's green breast

Seeking her grass,

Till all is brown and bleak

Where they pass.

(Earth, kind Earth, must your breasts run dry?

How can you bear

To feel the mouths close-pressing

In despair?)

Of such it the kingdom of heaven ....

And yet they lie

Piled in the sterile fields,

Glad to die,

Glad to die.



Poetry, Volume XV, A Magazine of Verses, Chicago, IL, 1919-1920