An 8-year-old Somali girl, named Habiba
fled with her father from constant gunfire
leaving behind their small hut and
few possessions. They walked for weeks,
unable to find food. Her father carried
her the last miles into a camp in Kenya.
She died as she smelled lamb cooking,
listening to sand blowing against the tent.
At a Hanukkah Celebration on Bondi Beach
in Sydney Australia, father and son gunmen.
killed fifteen people including a ten-year-old
girl given the name Matilda. As she lay
on the beach and struggled to breathe,
she felt the grit of sand pressing against
her face. Despite her injury she could still
smell the wax from the Hanukkah Candles.
A six-year-old girl in Gaza named Hind Rajab
fled the gunfire with her uncle and five relatives
in the family car. She died screaming for help
into her cell phone as she heard bullets
riddle the car and smelled gasoline.
Two paramedics responded to her call
and came to help but they too were killed
by a fusillade of bullets.
An eight-year-old girl given the name Daisy
died in a Lubbock Texas hospital
last year from measles which was declared
eliminated in the United States in 2000.
Daisy was unvaccinated. As she lay dying
surrounded by family singing hymns
about going to a better place she was
aware of the smell of antiseptic.
A three-year-old boy named Armstrong died
in Nigeria of cholera from drinking unsafe
water. As he lay dying, reeking of feces,
he heard his Dad emptying his bucket
and those of the others suffering nearby.
One teenage boy who stood by and tried
to help watched five of his siblings
pass away in less than six hours.
Three children including an eight-year-old girl
given the named Maya died at a birthday party
in Stockton, California from a mass shooting.
The perpetrators are still unnamed and at large.
Police and forensic investigators
combed the area for clues even as the smell
of just cut birthday cake wafted in the air
and the sounds of Happy Birthday resonated.