On the Recent War
by Theodora Goss

Every child that died
on either side
was a song that will never be sung,
a dance that will never be danced, a story
that will never be told or written,
a painting that will never be painted, a statue
that will never be carved in stone,
a tune that will never be played, a poem
that will never come into being.
A silence, an absence
where there could have been —
something, anything.

(The image is Child in a Straw Hat by Mary Cassatt.)