Poetry of SlyM

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Loss (January 2007)

From empty unconsciousness I've just awoke;
  The air all around me is dusty and thick.
I open my eyes to a sky full of smoke,
  And next to me lies shattered plaster and brick;
My home turned to wreakage! I cry out, then choke,
  For what has become of my child?

My two year old could have been hurt, could be dead!
  I struggle and stumble up onto my feet
Then notice how wide the destruction was spread:
  The bodies and buildings which litter the street.
Yet I suffer nothing except for my dread:
  The chance I have lost my child.

I cannot endure such a sickening fear!
  He must have escaped from the bombing as well.
Like me, he's uninjured, and got some place clear,
  And didn't get hurt when the houses all fell.
It has to be true! And my baby is near-
  I must go and find my child!

I run past the ruins. Where deaths have occurred
  Survivors are staring off into the void.
In shock from their loss they can utter no word
  While salvaging scraps from a life now destroyed.
I cry out for help, but unnoticed, unheard:
  "Has anyone seen my child!?"

Continuing over debris covered ground,
  At last, near a group, at the end of a lane
In frightened surprise, making no kind of sound
  My child stands alone. I have found him again!
-His face streaked with dirt, and just staring around,
  My poor little terrified child.

I fly down upon him, my tears uncontrolled
  But why does my baby not recognise me?
Not even when I'm reaching down to take hold-
  My arms pass then through, like he's mist from the sea.
I fall back, dumbfounded, my heart going cold:
  Is this then the ghost of my child?

A stranger approaches my child from behind
  And wraps in a coat his exposed little frame.
Then with a grim face, but so gentle and kind
  He carries my child to the crowd whence he came.
They're lost from my sight, but there's hope for my mind;
  This stranger will care for my child.

At last, to the truth, I have been reconciled
  And realize that I was saying goodbye.
He never was lost, my dear, innocent child;
  Then one who's been lost, is I.


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