Day 614

He did not want to take
his younger brother
to the place
where food was being
distributed.  Of all their family
they were the only ones
left, seventeen and fourteen,
Two brothers.  He, the older one,
had become father, mother.  He
was the sky over his brother’s
head, the stars looking down
from that sky.  They were hungry.
There was no food.  There was only
water that made them sick, that made it
hard to walk in the summer heat.
He did not want his brother
to come, and his brother
did not want to be left alone.
So they walked.  Slowly,
while it was still dark,
they approached the place.
Suddenly there were drones,
suddenly there were people
screaming.  It was his brother
who grabbed his hand, pulled him
away, out of the line of fire.
It was his brother — thin,
his face contorted
with fear — who dragged him
over the rocky ground. They lay
listening. They waited.
After a while, when it was quiet,
they stood.  They began
walking back together.