No Sparrow Falls [a poem]

No sparrow falls,
nor molecule decays
without you reaching out your hand.
No tear cascades,
no memory aches, or fades
without you conscious of it all
No last breath is drawn,
no lost love, forlorn
without you bearing all their pain.

No wound is born,
nor scar deforms
without it gouging out your palm.
No daughter stumbles,
no son departs
without you crying out their name.
No trigger’s pulled
or knife blade falls
without it slicing through your heart.

No one dies,
and no one weeps
without a spasm in your chest,
and no one wounds and no one kills
without you screaming out in pain,
for once again, the despair of men
pierces through your side,
an eternal wound
of blood and salt,
a saline flow
from palm and foot,
breast and brow and eye,
that bears the pain of each and all,
a weeping flow of love,
never ceasing, nor forgetting,
never letting go,
till the day
when all is filled,
and all are healed,
and all return,
finally one with you.

by Kristin Jack, who lived with his family for 17 years in Cambodia. From his book Poetry and Prophecy