Mother is that thunder
The child looks pensive
Yes darling a storm is coming
The mother kisses her brow
Carries a little of her on her lips
The girl smiles weakly
Softly reassured.
------------------------
Mother will it rain
Excited it might
I’m afraid it may
A small embrace
This time a longer kiss
Savouring her soft warmth
The girls smile widen
Secure in love
------------------------
The mother returns a smile
But turns away quickly
Her eyes do not smile
They see men in the street
Crouched behind her walls
Muzzles pointing towards fates rumble
Tracked ‘thunder’ approaches
----------------------
Calmly the mother takes a sheet
A sheet as heavy as her heart
Lets make a den
Play games and sing
The girl gives an eager grin
Helps lay the sheet over the table
The mother calls it a safe house
They climb in
--------------------
At first the occasional pop
The mother brushes it off
It’s the boys playing in the street
Then a burst of cackling barks
Wrapped in the mothers arms
The girl jumps alarmed at first
Then settles as the mother sings
Hugs tighter and kisses her ear
The girls scent mingles with cordite
Life and death in one take of breath.
--------------------
Kalashnikovs retreat spitting sporadically
and ineffectively at armoured plate.
Successful only in splintering wood or
gouging the masonry of the owners homes.
As the ground quakes with arrogant contempt
A deep throated thump is audible
and destruction is unleashed
Indiscriminate seconds pass before
nearby brick and tile give way and tumble
And booming shockwaves spew
shards of glass cross the floor
---------------------
At first the mother stiffens.
Breath held, ears straining
to track the flight of the shell
Enveloping the girl firmly in her arms
singing as loud as she dare
Fear tightly distorting her voice.
Rocking she wishing the girl asleep
Wishing they be invisible, undetectable
To the ferocity on the other side of the veil
----------------------
As the glass settles
Silently the violence enters
A vulgar whisper only the girl hears
As the mother sighs’ her relief
The girl expellees her breath too
Drawn out into a murderous world
by murmuring ricocheted velocity
Buzzing like a hornet it slips in
to steal her breath away.
The mother continues her soft lullaby
Willing the tanks on their way
----------------------
In the gloom of their hiding place
Through the veil of dust now hanging
Light points malevolent and uncaring
through a hole in the woven wall.
A beam of realization stabs
at young life extinguished.
Abjectly the mother wails
Child cradled limply in her arms.
Her lips pressed to blooded temple.
She as have numberless others,
greets wars hollow hatred
as it beats down the door.
By Dibs
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