Day 1,046

She used to be able
to stay at home
with her younger children.
Her husband earned enough
so they could all live: eight
children, a house, a garden.
Then the bombing. The house
destroyed. Garden
decimated. Husband
wounded, confined
to a wheelchair. She began
selling beans. Beans
she bags halfway
through the night, then piles
the bags in a cart, wheels them
from tent to tent. The kids
take care of their father
and one another. All day
this mother sells her beans
until she has just enough money
to buy what her children
will need the next day.
All day all she thinks of
is getting her children
one more sunrise.