No Madonna and Child could touch
        Her tenderness for a son She soon would have to forget...
        The air was heavy with odors of diarrhea,
        Of unwashed children with washed-out ribs
        And dried-up bottoms waddling in labored steps
        Behind blown-empty bellies. Other mothers there
        Had long ceased to care, but not this one:
        She held a ghost-smile between her teeth,
        and in her eyes the memory
        Of a mother's pride... She had bathed him
        And rubbed him down with bare palms.
        She took from their bundle of possessions
        A broken comb and combed
        The rust-colored hair left on his skull
        And then — humming in her eyes — began carefully
        (to part it.
        In their former life this was perhaps
        A little daily act of no consequence
        Before his breakfast and school; now she did it
        Like putting flowers on a tiny grave.


O escritor nigeriano Chinua Achebe traz uma reflexão sobre a situação dos refugiados em um cenário pós-guerra civil em seu país. Essa reflexão é construída no poema por meio da representação de uma mãe, explorando a(s)