Ellen Conway Bellone: Holy Innocence

HOLY INNOCENCE

by Ellen Bellone

She is singing, leaping, twirling, Up, around the debris filled shelter Of adults on their cots, their new homes.

CLICK… Punch balls, stick balls, stoop balls. Pink bouncing Spalding balls, Skate keys, jacks, jump ropes, dolls Fill our after-school street. Cars honk us to the curbs. His stick hits the Spalding Which lands in Old Crank’s yard. “OUT”!

As the sun lowers, the sky darkens And we homing pigeons head home. The family dinner tests our mothers. Common foods are very hard to find. Meat is scarce; sugar is scarce; coffee is scarce. Brave, sad, troubled parents ask about school!

The punch balls, stick balls, stoop balls Skate keys, jacks, jump ropes, dolls abound, Creating our simple wartime surround!