Day 619

Your father went to get food
and he never came back.  Now
your mother says she’ll go.
She promises to be careful.
But who can be careful
when shots are fired?  When drones
fly overhead?  Even at eight years old
you know that.  You know
she’s only trying
to make you feel all right.
She knows you know that,
but she’s walking there
anyway now.  She knows
she could be killed.  She knows
how your stomach 
has been aching for months
from hunger.