Day 478/Ceasefire Day 8

Clothing is strewn on the hard ground
in front of where the hospital stood:
scrubs, hospital gowns,
jeans, t-shirts, jackets visitors wore
and people sheltering.  This is no
art exhibit but the remnants
of lives, signifiers of an hour
when people were driven
from their beds, iv’s ripped out, those
too weak or too disabled to walk
carried by others.  Stripped, beaten,
nurses and doctors along with their patients,
elderly ones, young amputees.  Here
are their last possessions.  Here
are the markers of their time
inside the ruined walls:  a shirt
slipped over someone’s head
in the chilly morning.  A white coat
worn in the last examination
all someone’s years of training
led up to: Vigilant ear
assessing the level
of congestion.  The final listen   
to the final heartbeat.