H.E. Mantel

ARE YOU THERE?

Where are you, Daddy
Have you gone… back to that place
That horrible place

who took you away
from us, & puts you with the
other children in –

to the Pictures?… Where
are you, Mommy, we haven’t
done the kitchen smells

since, & the perfume…
Brother needs, Sister needs to
hear… Is that… You!? Yes!

©Copyright September 9, 2008 by H.E. Mantel

Author’s Note: Commissioned for “A Hero’s Journey”, an Anthology about the children of war and the interminable consequences that war has on their lives, compiled and edited by Erik Ekstrom.