Day 469

They are preparing to go back 
to their home in the north, this mother
and her two remaining children.
How long will it take them
to get there, just miles
away?  And what
will they see as they go?
Neighborhoods bulldozed
to nothing.  Rock and sand.
Raw sewage running in streets
that are barely streets anymore,
bodies still decomposing.
And their home?  The mother
knows it’s only rubble
under which her husband
lies buried, her two
older children. Yet
when these little ones
hear they’ll be allowed
to go home, they shriek
with happiness.  Are they young enough
to believe they’ll see their father again,
their two older brothers?
Do they think home
will be what it was before:
their toys in place, friends
playing ball next door?  She
doesn’t tell them.  Silently
she folds their few little things.
Maybe the sky will be 
what it was, she thinks:
the same hills in the distance,
same birds overhead?