Day 491/Ceasefire Day 21

This mother is calling her children
to gather around her, the living children
and the dead.  Come, she says,
it is night, I will tell you a story.
How you have grown! she says
to the youngest, the one
who stopped growing, then
grew smaller and smaller, 
who died because he was hungry.
How beautifully you have learned
to speak, she tells the one
whose face was destroyed, whose mouth
could never be found.  One daughter
who’s alive holds a living sister
and a sister who died
on her lap, strokes
their long hair, whispers
something to them
that makes them both laugh.
The mother hushes them gently.
Listen now to the story
I’m about to tell you, she
says.  It’s our story.  It’s
the story of how we will
always return
to this place, the story
of why we died
and how we have stayed alive.