Food rations she desperately wanted,

As she squealed and excitedly pointed

She brought cheap trinkets to bear,

Huge brown eyes and shiny black hair

She was a beautiful angel maybe seven,

Had this poor hungry child fell from heaven?

Dirty torn half-robe my eyes met,

Olive skin ringed in dust and sweat

Her smile was magnetic,

Full of life and energetic

I was literally swallowed in a sea,

As these begging babies surrounded me

Different children as I walked along,

Reflecting each child’s territory far from home

Innocent children with no one to care,

Crippled and starving they were everywhere

Soldiers traded portions of their food to savor,

The cheap trinkets of forced child labor

Her babbling in several languages inspired me,

As I gave her my lunch in it’s entirety

Eyes shining with joy,

At her new found friend and toy

She followed me everywhere

Describing to other kids what I had shared

Her special tourist I became,

But still I wonder what’s your name

A child myself barely seventeen,

Though now long ago and like a dream

Still whenever I think of you my eyes become wet,

For the lost hungry child I met

When at last I did depart,

I discovered you had stole my heart

Where are you today?

Loved, alive, not mistreated I pray

Still haunting my dreams like wind through the sand,

Tiny Angel from this African land

 

Author’s Note: While in the US ARMY stationed in Bitburg, Germany in 1986, we deployed on a covert 6-week operation to Morocco, Africa. It was under these conditions that I met the beautiful starving little girl, along with thousands of others who left such a haunting imprint on me.