Review of the Italian - Canadian Poetess Rita Amabili's poem 'Killing Children', Reviewer: Shah Jehan Ashrafi (Mauritius)
Review of the Italian - Canadian Poetess Rita Amabili's poem 'Killing Children'
Reviewer: Shah Jehan Ashrafi (Mauritius)
Do not kill children.
Do not teach soldiers to do the same
Their actions will haunt you for the rest of your life
The ugliness of war stains these children
Their essence and their souls are deformed by your fault
And you change the human in them before they flee in terror.
Don’t kill children.
Whoever you are, whoever they are, don’t do it.
Warn your hand before it becomes a monster
Turn your leg away: it must not bear the blow
Prevent your body from doing the irreparable act
Refrain from acting out of anger
No. Don’t kill children
Whatever their colour, sex or eyes.
Whatever their age. Aren’t you afraid of being denatured?
Totally, forever…And what would become of your own offspring?
Stained, smeared, soiled before they have even opened their eyes?
Don’t kill your flesh before you’ve even conceived it.
Choose peace. The kind that does your heart good
The kind we talked about when you were a child.
At school? Didn’t you go? At home? Didn’t you have one?
Then dig deep and you’ll find it.
Aren’t human beings made of love? Have we forgotten
To pulsate, to sparkle, to gleam, to blaze, to glow, to shine…
And to end up loving. To love. Choose peace. In truth, everything begins
Everything ends with love. Try to combine your life with it,
remake it and see the child for what they are: a treasure, a becoming, a new beginning.
Don’t kill, Don’t kill children. Please don’t be a dreadful harpy
When you were created to bring back to the surface, that oxygen altruism
Which is so lacking. Look at the little ones, find yourself in them.
Suddenly run, run faster than death, than the wound that strikes
us as long as you can, to the end of your breath, of your soul
Run further than the terror, run deprived of those you loved
Who still shudder at the life they left you with, shuddering at its end
Run, wearing the hollow knit of your foolish hopes, which the Great Ones will
tomorrow crush without pity with their high-heeled laws.
Don’t kill the children.
These rosebuds about to bloom, soiled, bruised, but priceless
Short of water, food and medicine. Strong yet puny.
You look like them, be aware of it and be cursed for harming them.
Don’t kill them, because by doing so you are also killing yourselves.
Curse you for harming them and killing yourselves continuously.
Do not kill children. Do not kill children.
Whoever you are, whoever they are, don’t do it.
Know how to share beyond all animosity, beyond all hegemony
Because in the end we are nothing but ashes
What will you look like when you’re rubble
And hate still guides you?
They forgive you even if they don’t forget
Don’t kill the children.
Break up the bread that you forbid them to eat
The earth has enough for every living thing. It is useless to deprive them of it.
What will you look like when you are rubble
And hatred still guides you?
Reviewed by Shah Jehan Ashrafi:
"Killing Children" reveals the brutal realities of war. Rita Amabili has written a timely and poignant poem, using children as representations of humanity itself—embodying the future of humankind. In Wordsworth’s view, children exist in a heightened state of closeness to the divine and are inherently pure. Amabili also sees this beauty in children and warns that war may strip them of their innocence, potentially transforming them into monsters: “Until you change the human in them before they flee in terror.” This fear is why the priestess in the poem advocates peace. War not only dehumanizes soldiers but also teaches children to mimic violence.
By allowing war to persist, we destroy the very future that children represent. Amabili’s message echoes John F. Kennedy’s sentiment: “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.” The poem urges us to recognize what is lost when conflict takes precedence over compassion. We need, as the poem states, “to pulsate, to sparkle, to blaze, to glow, and to shine.”
The poet seeks to awaken soldiers’ consciences by encouraging them to see themselves in the young victims. The poem becomes an appeal to let children experience the beauty of life—school, home, and love. Soldiers are reminded that they, too, are vulnerable. Therefore, they must offer the world the same empathy and care they expect from it. Instead of projecting hatred onto the world, they have the power to build a future where humanity is cherished.
To reinforce this idea, Amabili asks: “Aren’t human beings made of love?” She urges soldiers to see their victims as mirrors—reflections of their own humanity. The poem also presents the nihilism that underlies all wars. Amabili portrays war as an endless, futile pursuit. The soldiers chase after nothing, compelled to “run faster than death” and “further than the terror.” In this way, the poem becomes a haunting ode to suffering, hope, and the existential void, reminding us that all life must ultimately surrender to death.
In the end, killing children may offer a fleeting sense of power, but the perpetrat
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