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| It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and six-year-old Zainab Jamshed could not wait to spend the day at the park with her family. The young girl - the only one in her family - had already arrived in Lahore's Gulshan-i-Iqbal park when a massive suicide bomb went off a few metres from a children's play area, killing her and at least 69 other people. Hundreds were also wounded, and most of the victims were women and children.The attack, which was claimed by a breakaway Taliban faction, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, was aimed at killing members of Pakistan's Christian minority gathered at the park to celebrate Easter Sunday. However, most of those killed were Muslims - like Zainab. —Aljazeera, March 28, 2016. Photo: Forensic officers look for evidence at the site of a blast that happened outside a public park on Sunday, in Lahore, Pakistan, March 28, 2016. Credit: REUTERS/MOHSIN RAZA |
After Church on Easter Sunday
families go to the park
children play at the blue fountain,
on the hilly gilly, on the train.
Families at the park
in Lahore Pakistan, children
ride the hilly gilly
parents keep watch.
In Lahore Pakistan
Christian and Muslim children play
parents keep watch, but do not see
the young man padded with explosives.
Christian and Muslim children
wait for a train to ride
explosives detonate
the park runs with blood.
There will be no more trains to ride
the blue fountain
runs red with blood
after church on Easter Sunday.
Janet Leahy lives in New Berlin Wi, she is a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets. Her work has been published in The Wisconsin Poets’ Calendars, in journals, anthologies, at TheNewVerse.News and other poetry web sites. She has published two collections of poetry.