Day 486/Ceasefire Day 16

Say they were baking bread.  They
were sitting in the front room
drinking coffee, talking
about nothing important.  The fragrance
of rising bread pervading
the house.   Say the children
were playing some game, running
from one room to the next,
hiding, squealing.  Say it was just
a day, a day folded in among others.
Nothing remarkable.  Clear sky.
No drones, no warplanes.  Say
there had never been bombings.
Say everyone in the family
was alive, not thinking
of wounds, amputations,
rank odors of sewage.  Say
there had always been food.
Say the water was clean.  Say
they awakened, ate, worked.
Say the children came home
and told what they’d learned.
Say there was never this destruction,
these ravaged buildings, concrete
and stones, miles of broken walls.
Say the hospitals were standing.
classes being taught at the universities.
Say there was never the sound of explosions, 
never these bones lying under the ground.