Day 597

This mother has lost nine
of her ten children.
Seven have been found, though
not their whole bodies.  It’s assumed
that two more lie buried
under the rubble
of what had been their home.
The mother is a doctor; she
had been working at a hospital
when the bomb was dropped
and the fire spread, the explosion
spread, and suddenly all but one
of her children dissolved
into nothing. Into ruin and waste
and devastation.  Her husband too
lies in a hospital, critically
injured.  And she, who had been
treating patients:  now what
will she do with her own
saved, shattered life?  How
will she go on
raising the single child who is left?
And her story will be told. Her story
will be told for a week, maybe 
a few weeks. Then, tell me:
will it too,
like the lives of her children,
disappear under the rubble?
The unspeakable debris
of so many lives?