When a child asks, “How can I find a place

free of terrors?” and you hear terrors whisper,

just behind her, it would be false to say,

“There are no terrors here.”

There is a girl, half a world away, who drew a bullet

from her own head by reading stories.

Before the bullet, by wanting to read stories.

In a nearby room a child, perhaps your child,

may be reading a story.  That girl, half a world away,

eases this child’s passage with her story.

To say, “There are no terrors here,”

when all around you hear them, is just another way

to add your voice to terrors whispering.

Make of your ears a place for stories

told by those still learning to read.  You may

ease their passages, even hers, half a world away,

when you make a place inside yourself for stories.

©  Matt Daly, 2013

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