Jane Yolen
If One Child Is Saved
If one child is saved,
we call it a miracle.
If many children die,
a Holocaust..
We have no word
for the in-between,
only for those moments of peace
with a small p.
Perhaps if we did,
We would have
a record crop
of ploughshares.
We could spend our days
listening to small hands
playing clapping games,
not hiding in closets
or cellars, or holes.
If one child and one child
are saved.
And one more
and one more.
If we could find
the capital P
hidden away in the duck’s egg,
along with Kostchai’s heart
perhaps.
It is an old story.
The oldest.
It is a good dream.
The best.
Jane Yolen is a poet, novelist, children’s book writer, essayist, short story writer, and lyricist. To date, she has published 376 books, 10 of them poetry collections for adult readers. She has won many awards for her work, including two Nebulas, two Golden Kite Awards, a Caldecott Medal, two Christopher Medals, a New England Public Radio Arts & Humanities award, and three World Fantasy awards. Six colleges and universities have granted her honorary doctorates. Yolen writes, “But awards can be dangerous. One set my good coat on fire.”
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