The State Sanctioned Taking of Children

The State Sanctioned Taking of Children 

The children were missing from the garden that day 

their toys abandoned, left lying in the flower bed. 

No bouncing of balls, no cackling calls, no signs of play. 

She'd scribbled on walls, he’d smushed the clay, 

rode his scooter in the hall, smeared chocolate spread, then 

they went missing from the garden that day. 

I only went to the bathroom, really just a small delay 

to take a breath, catch a breath, hold a breath, instead 

no...bouncing balls, no...cackling calls, no...sounds of play, 

We can’t have them thinking, so we’ll take them away, 

lead them down the garden path, they’ve been misled they said, so 

they removed them from the garden that day. 

No more huggling, no more giggling, no more tickling; no bedtime delay, 

I’d checked for monsters under their bed; I should have looked outside instead, so 

no bouncing balls, no cackling calls, no sounds of play,

the draconian drakon lurking outside on the grey  

asphalt, swallowed them whole; vanished like odd socks, blue, white and red, 

as if they were dead, when the children were taken from the garden that day, 

no more...bouncing balls, no more...cackling calls, no more...sounds...of...play. 

 #ourmissinghearts