inside rueful rooms
sad destiny looms

legal barbarity
demise by decree

child in jeopardy
disposed as debris

that baby in danger
cannot be a stranger

can she be my neighbor
and her plight ignore?

the child with no voice
cannot make her choice

to live or be killed
to have her blood spilled

her limbs ripped apart
they halt that small heart

such cruelness they hide
all justice denied

if Abel still cries out
his blood in a shout

how loud from the ground
does this blood resound?

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Trumpet Sounds 9/3/03