eeding

So, he meticulously
picked up every sesame seed
that had fallen off his bread,
and placed them carefully
in a straight line on the table.

"I had seen. I watched him fight back
tears, flinch and pull out his hair,"
she said of him, not able
to read the alarms displayed.

She couldn't see the damage,
the people under the rubble,
a father under an air-raid.
Or that a cloud of bleak ash
had settled on that day - and penetrated.

So, he meticulously,
later, picked up a primed package
that he dared not let fall from his hand,
and placed it carefully
on a straight line in a tube.

So, she vomited every day after
for three months in her tunnel,
ever so careful to pick up
the underground stains and fallout.

So, she was left alarmed and disturbed,
primed from now on to wonder
about the rubble and scattered seeds,
and the straight line of violence that had
led, settled on that day - and penetrated.