A Mother in a Refugee Camp
No Madonna and Child could touch
Her tenderness for a son
She soon would have to forget...
The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
and in her eyes the memory
Of a mother's pride... She had bathed him
And rubbed him down with bare palms.
She took from their bundle of possessions
A broken comb and combed
The rust-colored hair left on his skull
And then — humming in her eyes — began carefully
(to part it.
In their former life this was perhaps
A little daily act of no consequence
Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.
ACHEBE. C Collected Poems New York Anchof Books. 20W
O escritor nigeriano Chinua Achebe traz uma reflexão
sobre a situação dos refugiados em um cenário pós-guerra
civil em seu país. Essa reflexão é construída no poema
por meio da representação de uma mãe, explorando a(s)
