Page 189 - Eggs and Ashes pages
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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’.)

