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One day, as I was driving my kids home from school through Phnom Penh, a small band of street children collecting recyclables threaded their way across the busy road, just in front of us.  They were lead by a young girl, dressed in rags, dragging a large rice-sack of bottles and cans.  She looked to be the same age as my daughter Emma, who I had with me in our tuk-tuk. I wrote this down when we got home.

Bobbing through the indifferent traffic

and the belched out fumes

of the out-wardly mobile

a small nugget of joy laughs

in the face of all that is so vulnerable.

Those two eyes which must have seen

the lack of all things but poverty

shine like coals

dark embers lit from within.

Across one shoulder

a rice-sack of scrap

trails like a sash or a robe

its train filled

with tin-cans like diamonds

and a million other dreams besides.

She carries her weight

with the grace of the high-born

and those dark bare-feet

should fill sequin and silver

the way they glide

across tar-seal and dust

proving once more

that even in a world that crushes and binds

trading innocence for cash

children are made for a Kingdom.

[Kristin Jack is the Asia Coordinator of Servants.  He and his family lived in Cambodia for 17 years.  A book of his poetry, entitled 'Poetry and Prophecy' has just come out and is available from Servants.]