children Children strung together
with a scarlet string: culled,
selected, kidnapped, abducted.
They travel time and the world a million times
over, but they remain diaphanous.

children Children begin young everywhere,
why are these Children not?
Seduced and forced they are taught to tie
those crimson dahlia ribbons 'round
children's heads, heels and hearts
until they starve to not touch those
ribbons, to not know what they knew
(that oo had been bound with the
cardinal ribbon), but only know how
to shackle more and more.

children Children may return to the life
of late, but it's forgotten them. That
life has seen too many ribbons, too
many scarlet dahlias bursting
forth from the arid terrain. This life
has forgotten that children Children
were bound in ribbons