For a Child Dying in a Tenement

THIS IS A POEM WRITTEN BY CARLOS BULOSAN.

How hard it is to see you go,
to watch the shame of starvation in your face.

Dear child, you are among the first to know
the terror of plenty, the crime of innocence,
the anguish of poverty...
I guess I know
the cold of winter, the despair of being poor,
the terror of loneliness and of not having fun.

I guess I know the perplexed look in your face,
the unanswered question, the wordless answer,
all the faces that could not stand pain.

Fear is dying. Now try to sleep off
the agony of hunger, the lion in the hallowed breast
the spreading fire snapping the walls of the lung,
You are among the first to go. Now try to sleep.
And now goodbye till we meet again.