THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED

They’re all living within an unknown period of time.
We let this happen

See what is happening: they update news reports every body.
We let this happen

In a shed out back, grandfather and grandmother are always in.a

We let this happen

They woke up calmly to the sounds of explosions,
smoked a cigarette.

We let this happen

Today is a deserted city being bombed from the streets
and intermittent fighter jets overhead. We let this happen

I’ve been losing blood for the past 10 years. I’m very cold.
We let this happen

No sirens or murders, but pain and tragedy.
We let this happen

They couldn’t be saved.
We let this happen

Charred bodies and bodies without arms and heads,
hundreds of mutilated bodies.
We let this happen

What was it like looking? It was already normal.
We let this happen

I’m used to walking among corpses.
We let this happen

I understand everything. I’m an adult, it’s war.
We let this happen

Everyone knows people in the uneven earth mounds.
We let this happen

Every person killed has a name.
We let this happen

People came looking, exploding various rumours.
We let this happen

Life is cancelled for tomorrow.
We let this happen

Three small children in the death catalogue,
bomb shelter in the morgue
We let this happen

We have summer and fall to clear the debris.
We let this happen

The night is still ahead among the burned things.
We let this happen

The killers were trained and weapons issued.
We let this happen

I can still hear the siren.
We let this happen

The bodies are piled in rows, indifferent to pain.
We let this happen

People have locked themselves in their bodies.
We let this happen

Smoke rising from the place where a room was.
We let this happen

Goodbyes are essentially impossible.
We let this happen

Powerful and moving poem. Unfortunately, it seems it is timely today and for every day in the future.

John Levy
Comment by bluefishcloud on 18 October, 2023 at 3:42 am

By Rupert Loydell