Day 169

I made a note about shoes.  The children are shoeless.
Small feet make their way
over broken ground.  Torn wire,
jutting bits of concrete.  Why would you say ‘be careful’?
They dig in the rubble for something to eat. There’s nothing.
There has been nothing for weeks.  How
can they still be walking, moving?  Where are their shoes? 
A mother frantically looks for her child’s shoes
but she has gone mad with hunger, grief; it’s her child
she’s looking for. I made a note
about feet.  How perfect they are
when a child is born, the toes ten pearls.
How soft before they touch the earth.