Hope For a Night

By Manasa Reddy Chichili

War orphans sat in the abandoned garden,  

Waiting for their food packages to arrive.  

They were the first voices, the new faces of that place,  

And the first sleep they'd had in so long.  

They didn’t know what the future held,  

Or what was happening in the present.  

A mother of four worried about her hungry children,  

A pregnant woman dreamed of red and orange pieces of soup.  

Two kids played, counting the bones in their bodies,  

One boy holding seashells in memory of his father.  

Meanwhile, mosquitoes danced on their bloody skin.  

They all hoped for a brighter future, by God’s grace.  

Hope, they believed, could strengthen their hearts  

And make their days endure

By Manasa Reddy Chichili