Day 750

Ceasefire III, Day 16

You’re trying to get back
to the place where your house stood,
but the roads are blocked
with rubble. No heavy trucks allowed in
to remove it. You’re trying
to get food for your children
but only a paltry number of trucks
are let in, and what’s permitted
is expensive and not what you need.
You sit in the van with other families.
The children all crying. An old woman
crying. You’re trying to get back
to yourself, to your neighborhood,
to some kind of life you understood.
But the crossings are blocked,
the memories blocked, the hopes
blocked. Even relief. Even
your sorrow, now, blocked.