38,000 Citizens Died, 80,000 Wounded, by A.S. DeWitt Angel

Numbers crumble with rows of houses,
a shred of bell tower peals
against the truant head of twenty-nine;
non-est inventus, uninhabited torsos
claim squatting rights.

Unseated monarchs
lie among their realms of roost and plot,
kitchen pots, roasted brick, parks
with smoking grass, see-saws hot to touch,
voids shriek raucous
denunciations to whom-ever, so-and-such.

Salami begs for one more chew,
hot mustard on taste buds
but her teeth are in her throat–
one-thousand and four chokes.
The severed arm of five-thousand
flexes fingers to grasp the grocers’ bag that implores
oranges and tomatoes, ‘come back, come back’.

Double digits lie, awkward,
improbable positions for kings, all,
queued for first dibs on ascension,
the Archangel’s list a half-hearted affair:
who is holy?
beware
the temptation to say ‘God’s will’
that blithe dismissal in warfare.

Instead, perhaps, he could use even numbers,
odd ones out.

..

A.S. DeWitt Angel has been writing poetry most of her life. She worked as a journalist in Idaho, USA, and self-published on Amazon Kindle the first two travel books in her Crazy American Lady series. She is a performance artist and singer and worked in the American entertainment industry for many years.

asdewittangelblog.wordpress.com