The Barrier.

So I was working on character-inspiration/storyboards on Pinterest, and I came across a picture of a little kid smeared in mud from doing forced labor in Latin America. Ten minutes previous, I'd been giggling about some random internet meme... Sometimes I forget that I push other people's problems to the back of my mind. Sometimes I forget how much harsher the world is outside my consumer culture bubble. :3 Anyways. Not to guilt trip anybody, but... Poem?
~~~~
I don't know you
little boy
making bricks
in a kiln
in India

I can't see you
little girl
in the streets
Except in pictures
far too young

I can't smell
the desperate filth
of your factory
Not from here
little family
starving
sunken eyes

I can't hear
your shallow breaths
little baby
little one
as you hide your face
in your mother's arms
far from any
help

I can't feel
the constant knife
of hunger
little mother
oh so small
No food
no growth

I can't taste
the dust
I can't feel
the sweat
Little boy
with water jug
limping fifteen miles
every dawn

I can't see
from my couch
I can't hug
from my house
little world
little goals
calloused heart

I can't heal
every pain
I can't feed you all
or save you from
this life

But I can care
and I can try
to make a better world
and do
the little things

So I will give
what I can
and I will look and learn
about your pain
even though it hurts my heart

I can't change every life
I can't free every slave
but I can help
just one
or two
or three

And I can share the God
Who knows you, sees you,
smells and hears you,
feels and tastes the bitter little world
and aches to give you
so much
so much more