Day 280

Walked through the ruined city.
Saw bodies and parts of bodies
emaciated, decayed, beyond
recognition.  Some
being eaten by animals
who, themselves, were emaciated.
Saw a child bending over the corpse
of another child.  Her friend?  Her
brother?  Beyond tears, beyond words,
beyond sobbing.  Her face
as blank as the dust she knelt on.
However much longer she has
to live, — days?  years?  into
some unfathomable old age? —
this is how
she’ll remember him:
his face pocked
with bullet holes, one
eye gone from its socket.
The other staring beyond her
to a sky filled with dread
and yet some possibility
of endurance.