the thin child perhaps nine
leaning against the slim tree
weeping her mother just dead
the mother who helped a
collapsed pregnant friend into
a taxi to get her to a hospital
the trip was in vain the woman
died so did all the others who
helped the woman now no one
will go near this crying child
no one will touch her for she
had touched her mother the
photo of this scene was on the
front page of the madison
state journal yesterday even
the photographer shot the
picture from a distance