I am embarrassed sitting breathing here
being told the last two missing did not
come home last night because they died. The bier
won't keep the knowing in; blood seeps and clots.
I heard a steely doctors say small bones
vessels testicles eyeballs toes explode,
splatter walls, displace, obliterate. God moans
and no one is struck dead when they intone
one child's name who has been holy all the while.
Death does not sanctify, death strangles, blackens day;
it kills survivors, but it is the child
who's dead and stays dead, who wanted just to play.
Brains blown away. Time to have dinner.
Sleep, forget. Forget. Who is the Sinner?