Answering to Our Children

by Samantha Terrell / February 9th, 2025

You mention the war in Ukraine.
“What's the latest?”

You’ve always been precocious, but
thirteen is a tender age (for some of us).

I wish to keep it that way –
can't bear telling you, today

there’s more than one war
we must worry over.

I formulate some sort of answer
I no longer recall; mind wanders –

to the children, through time,
traipsing through landmines,

around the globe,
to the Middle East, and back home.

History, oh history.
      How we fail your legacy.

Future, oh future.
      How we fail your potential.

Samantha Terrell is a Pushcart-nominated poet and the author of multiple five-star collections, most recently Dismantling Mountains (Vellum Publishing UK, 2023). Her poems have been widely anthologized in publications such as Dissident Voice, Green Ink Poetry, In Parentheses, Misfit Magazine, Nine Cloud Journal, Open Journal of Arts & Letters, Poetry Quarterly, Red Ogre Review, and others. Originally from the American Midwest, Terrell and her family now reside in Upstate New York. Read other articles by Samantha, or visit Samantha's website.

This article was posted on Sunday, February 9th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.