We’re doing this again,
are we, watching the bodies
wrapped in the white sheets, the large,
the little, which must be held
with care in the backs of carts
rocking between bombed buildings
by whoever’s, randomly,
left, a dazed man
or keening woman,
but we must choose our words
with care too, calibrate
our response, because
we wouldn’t want anyone
to think badly of us
or accuse of us something
that simply isn’t true,
so we must pretend
we’re fine with it and smile
and choose our words
as carefully as they handle the dead.
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Mark Kirkbride
Picture Rupert Loydell
Mark Kirkbride is the author of The Plot Against Heaven, Game Changers of the Apocalypse and Satan’s Fan Club, published by Crossroad Press. Game Changers of the Apocalypse was a semi-finalist in the Kindle Book Awards 2019. His short stories have appeared in Under the Bed, Sci Phi Journal, Disclaimer Magazine, Flash Fiction Magazine and So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. Poetry credits include Neon, the London Reader, the Big Issue, the Morning Star, the Daily Mirror, Sein und Werden, and Horror Writers Association chapbooks. https://markkirkbride.com/
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