Face

Madeleine McCann has a face. She has been abducted. She may be alive or dead. These are the terms by which she exists for us. Her face is known and we commiserate with its innocence. She is on all news channels, the internet and radio too. A photograph of her has been blessed by the Pope.

If only all children had faces. They don’t. Thousands are kidnapped or brutalized or sold into slavery. Millions die. Somewhere in Africa a faceless baby is found in a garbage dump wrapped in a Checkers packet. From far away its faceless, lifeless body looks like a doll. Aids and starvation have become tired now. The Pope hasn’t set foot on this continent in years.

It is a doll.