85
THE BODIES OF THE CHILDREN.
On the Festival of Mary, on our Lady's Festal Day,
The Mothers of the Empire will be gathering to pray; They will gather in the House of God, and each the other greet,
The vaulted roof resounding with the echo of their feet.
In the Port of Fragrant Waters*, off the coast of far Cathay,
The Mothers of the Empire will be gathering to pray; Where they pass to the Cathedral, and each one the other greets,
The bodies of the little ones are cast into the streets.
The bodies of the little ones for nigh a hundred years,
Have been sold for silver dollars and have paid in blood and tears; While the mothers go a-mothering and each the other greets, The bodies of the little ones are bartered in the streets.
They are bartered into brothels, they are beaten into shame,
They are sold for vilest uses into hovels of ill-fame; While the mothers go a-mothering, and each the other greets,
The bodies of the children are defilèd in the streets.
In the Port of Fragrant Waters*, off the coast of far Cathay, I can see a Figure passing and He sees the mothers pray; And He sees them meet and chatter as each one the other greets, Where the bodies of His children have been flung into the streets.
The Mothers of the Empire where the British standard flies, In that distant Christian colony beneath the alien skies, While they're gathering together and each one the other greets, Will they heed the piteous bodies tumbled out into the streets?
*British Colony of Hong Kong.
C. B, L. HASLEWOOD.
A.B.C. PRESS LTD,, BATH