Aleppo

by Howie Good

 

Perhaps if I stay still, very, very still,

they will step out from the burning rubble

into the last desolate wisps of daylight,

and say their names, Mohammed, Jamal, Iman,

and tell us exactly when and how they died,

whether blown up, or gunned down, or incinerated,

so we can apologize before they fade for good,

shadows of ghosts, dark matter collapsing inwards,

timely making way for the silence of forgetting.

 

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Howie Good is the author of Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements, winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry. His other books include A Ghost Sings, a Door Opens from Another New Calligraphy and Robots vs. Kung Fu from AngelHouse Press (both 2016). He co-edits White Knuckle Press with Dale Wisely.