Day 420

Two sisters who survived being trapped
under the rubble of their house
are killed in another air strike.
Their father has shepherded them
from one ruined place to another.
In the time between the last bombing
and this one, the girls live a half-life,
can’t forget what it was 
to be buried, to have the whole weight
of death bearing down
on their bodies, to lie helpless,
confined, hearing each other’s
screams. In the time since being pulled back
into the light the girls learn
what it is to live but not live, and this
changes their days.  They die
but don’t die, they live in some tunnel
halfway between.  When they eat
they taste death, when they sleep
death taunts them.  Even the rain,
the soft air washed clean
for a moment by rain, cannot
convince them they are still in this world. 
And now death has come and sucked them 
all the way down.  Now light
cannot reach them, nor their
father’s grief.