I saw a picture of her,
laughing mouth
full of baby teeth
& another
where she bends flower stems
low enough
to reach her nose
she was five
ready to start school
in 2 weeks
until
they found her
yesterday morning
in a garbage can
under another bag
full of trash
look at her smile
again
when did that fragile
cherished flesh
become
someone else’s
garbage?
***For Bella Tennant
Susan Daniels Poetry 
Wow that’s terrible. Good tribute though.
Thanks Moriah–wish I hadn’t had to write it–heard the story yesterday morning. makes me sick–poor little girl.
Agreed. I have a 2 year old. I can’t imagine.
Me neither.
So sad…
yes. Cannot imagine the pain her family has right now–at least that poor little girl is beyond pain now.
very sad! what sick mind could do this?
oh, lord, Noel–a teenaged boy.
why? why? why? so much sickness in the world!
I know, I know. There is no answer that satisfies, is there?
well written, beautifully painful… sorrow conveyed. masterful Susan
thanks, hon. the awful things humans do to each other never fails to astound me.
Hi Susan,
You handle this really well without tipping over into sentimentalism – I think it makes the message all the more powerful.
How awful and tragic, as others have said – just unbelievable.
Thank you, Anne. Yes–this whole thing is awful.
Ah, poor little mite ~ what a terrible, terrible thing … you have written this so touchingly Susan …
Thanks, Polly. So sad. Heard about this on the radio yesterday, driving around with my own children. Heartbreaking.
There is nothing that anyone can say that would be adequate to convey how disgusting crime this is. I don’t honestly know how the parents and family can ever cope with such a dreadful thing happening to their own child. We live in such a sick, cruel world now and, it’s getting worse by the day instead of better. I agree, you told this with such a non judgmental calm, it makes it all the more difficult to believe the sheer madness behind it.
Stuff like this really and truly makes me want to do something horrible to the perpetrators, but what? Nothing beings this child back.
Thanks Susan, for accepting that the bad things in life need to be reinterpreted by poets as well as the good.
Thanks, David. Would really rather have let this one lie. Makes me so angry.
tears…this is terrible..i’m lost for words..just so glad that you gave her a voice
Thanks, Claudia. The voice I would have told this in, if it were mine, would have been far far more angry and judgmental. Poor little girl.
Beautiful poetry; though it breaks my heart to see how we treat what is life’s most precious miracle. Still, you conveyed the sadness of absurdity of what the human race is capable of. May we one day choose not for ourselves, but for the ones without voices to scream.
~ Cara
Thanks, Cara–and nice to “meet” you. I agree with you, that we need to listen, as it were, to those of us with the weakest voices.
Oh Susan, you offered a beautiful tribute to this little girl. This is a story that should never ever have to be told…
Thank you, Mimi–I so wish these stories did not need to be told.
it is truly tragic
Thanks, Ian. Yes, it is.
Oh, so sad, so depressing. I hear these things and I cannot comprehend.
Me neither, Georgia.
*Silent response*
best kind. Thanking you.
I have nothing to say except to stand and silently acknowledge this.
I can’t quite click like, but so well said. I just wish you wrote this as fiction. 😦
Thanks, Nelle. I wish this was fiction, too.
gruesome and sick!
It is awful, what they did to that child.
beyond all comprehension! 😦
Touching … really sad !!!
They interviewed her mother yesterday. This whole thing is so horrible.
sad one for sure. similiar story here in erie pa some months ago.
I just will never understand it.
Brilliantly said! I practically raised my youngest sister and her cutting teeth was sad ~I cried with her! 🙂
Aw.
So very sad, a senseless and needless death. Your tribute is so touching and my heart goes out to her Bella’s grieving family.
Thank you. That poor little girl.
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