HAIKU, UNHELD

"Two young girls who left their pet rabbit behind, mothers carrying toddlers and luggage—these are some of the more than half million people who fled their homes in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion." —NPR,  February 28, 2022. 

Editor's Notes:  1. When sirens rang out and Russian missiles began pummeling Ukraine’s cities, hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes, many bringing with them the cats, dogs and other pets they cannot leave behind.” —The Mercury News, February 28, 2022.   2. Humane Society International is providing necessary support, including emergency funds, to groups that are helping the Ukrainian people and the animals in their care who have been devastated by Russia’s military invasion. You can rush a gift to its emergency response for Ukraine and other rescue and relief efforts here.    3. “When we talk about pets in the same breath as the humanitarian tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, it can sometimes feel a little flippant. Surely our focus should be on the human victims, not someone’s cat? But to the very real people at the centre of this tragedy, their pets are not something to be flippantly forgotten about. —EuroNewsGreen.   4. The Telegraph (UK)) photo above from the Ukraine evacuation does not picture the girls mentioned in the NPR story.

Melissa Bentley lives in North Carolina, and works in the field of public mental health services.

ON HEARING LOSS

by Melissa Bentley

A poster in Kasur, Pakistan, includes a picture of Zainab and the message: "Protest. Protest. Protest. Daughter Zainab, we are ashamed. But if not now, then never. Zainab, in light of your martyrdom, we will seek accountability for all similar events in the past. We will not rest without that." Photo by Diaa Hadid/NPR, February 1, 2018

From the comfort of my heated driver’s seat,

I listened to a Pakistani Mother pray
for God to hear her plea
   for the safety of

        her
    daughter
                   her
                  child,

whom the reporter had just told me
was found on a trash heap near her home -
raped, murdered, thrown away,
before the age of 6.
That child will not sit up on that heap of shit,
slide down, and take the short walk home today.
She will not show up at her Mother's door
now, tomorrow, or
               
                    ever.

I’m watching the sun rise
on my drive,
in pink and mellow skies,
listening to a Mother’s cries.

You tell me,
does God hear a
Mother’s prayer?

Melissa Bentley lives in North Carolina. She enjoys a variety of creative activities in addition to her day job.