We Who Mourn

a sonnet for the "scattered children"

Matej Pribanic, Unsplash

I babysit three, precious children who were evacuated from their old home due to political turmoil and unrest. Recently, while talking about their sojourning, the little boy told me, “we were scattered.”

Hearing such wording from such a small child makes my heart weep. What does one tell a child who has been “scattered”?

Later that night, I read them the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12) while they curled up under their covers for bed. “What does it mean to mourn?” their darling voices asked. This sonnet is inspired by the conversation that followed and the tenderness that our kind Maker weaves into the bitterness of this earth.

Blessed are you who mourn, for He is your light.

"We Who Mourn"
For the Scattered Children

I read the verse, "Blessed are those who mourn,"
And, smiling, "For they shall be comforted,"
To three small children with three souls forlorn
From losing the home where their childhood lived.
And the three, little eyes—three oceans blue—
Swept my soul in their tide of sorrowness. 
They asked me, "Who mourn?" And I whispered, "You.
For all that you've loved and lost and miss."
Peace tugged their mouths into soft, little smiles;
Their hollowed, blue eyes washed with light anew.
But one studied me for a silent while.
In a soft voice she ventured, "Do you mourn too?"
And she broke my soul with her tender sight.
Bless'd are we who mourn, for He sees our night.

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