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188      Eggs and Ashes



                and when the wall is built,
                they will still be flowering on both sides,
                fragile as human lives –
                different, but both as red as blood.


                Jan Sutch Pickard

                (These poems were written in 2004, when a small group from Scotland travelled as pilgrims to
                Jerusalem and the West Bank at the invitation of young people in Palestine.)




                Why is he getting wrong? *

                A child in the crowd watches Jesus carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem.


                It’s not fair!
                Why is he getting wrong off the soldiers?
                He’s a good man.
                Everyone knows him.

                He helps people.
                He makes them better.
                He talks to people.
                He tells stories – good stories.
                Everybody listens to him.

                Look at them!
                Why are they hurting him?
                Why won’t they leave him alone?


                He’s not a bad man.
                He’s a kind man.
                It’s not fair.
                Why is he getting wrong?


                Ruth Burgess and Kirsty Langlands, aged 10

                (*‘Getting wrong’ is a phrase used in the northeast of England and means ‘getting into trouble’
                or ‘getting blamed or punished’.)
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