Day 475/Ceasefire Day 5

You want to rejoice
that the sky is not filled
with warplanes, the trucks
have been allowed in, carrying
food, medicine.  That the children
can play outdoors.  You want
to rejoice, to run shouting and singing
through the streets – but the streets
you find when you return
to the city you lived in all your life
have been bombed to gravel,
are nothing you know.  You see someone
crouched over rubble, realize
it’s your neighbor.  You walk
toward each other like two ghosts
meeting in an afterworld 
they’d never imagined.  It’s good,
you say to him; and he smiles
at you, answers, Yes, it’s good.
Beneath you, where once
there were flourishing gardens,
the souls of your lost ones
stir, turn, then rest
more deeply, knowing at last
that you have come back.