Bomb No. 241

Heading for the Southern Coast
to spend a day with family,
she'd packed her books and pajamas
and a gift for her brother,
wrapped and glittering.

There she was
the other day,
shaking in her coat,
scrubbing the
coldness of her fingertips
away, tracing
red leaves that float
on puddles that dwell
along the streets,

whistling for anything
that could carry her to that warm
bosom, to those merry eyes, to
her old room.

and
as she put her baggage
in the trunk and got in the taxi,
a new breeze was born into the sky.

Then the earth did quake for a bit,
then her smile lit up the sky for a bit
before all of this was burnt
to ashes.