Day 496/Ceasefire Day 26

Tell me, do you love this land?
We love it in the freezing rain, the wind
that blows blood-soaked dust in our faces.
Tell me, do you fear for it?
We know it is alive under the rubble.
We know there are spirits breathing there.
We know there are thousands of buried seeds.
When you look at the ruined buildings,
what do you see?
I see a man digging to find
the broken bones of his children.
I see a child holding her father’s shirt,
all she has left of him.
I see two orphaned boys
carrying buckets of water
to their siblings. Heavy as the buckets are,
the boys quicken their pace.
And where are the dead?
Their corpses are piled
one over another
in crowded graveyards
where families are living in tents
amid bodies destroyed — first
by soldiers, then by the weather.
Tell me, how can you love this?
We love it because in summer
cool breezes blow in from the sea.
We love it for the fragrance
of jasmine and oranges
that we still can smell with our hearts,
more powerful than the stench of sewage,
of the cold decaying remains of our beloved.