Tail of the Whirlwind
When that whirlwind
Tossed our lives in midair,
We saw death
In our mothers’ eyes,
We heard bullets
That would pierce our fathers’ hearts,
We knew time frozen
And hope gone missing.
When that whirlwind
Blew no more
Our homes were no more.
Displaced among shattered parents,
Creaking neighbors,
Bewildered families,
Time and hope
Failed to reappear.
And for two years now,
We ourselves have become
The tail of the Whirlwind.
Our souls churn slowly
From fear to fear,
Our eyes run circles
As every window opens to terror,
Our ears trudge heavily
From noise to missile and back,
Our every move another turn
Of the Whirlwind’s tail.
Hidden in our minds
We rehearse that Whirlwind,
It runs fast or slow,
But it never stops,
As we never sleep.
And on that cycle in our minds
Learning, memory, thinking
Can do nothing but spin
Keeping time and hope distant.
Our hearts spin round
Unable to pause with joy
For ice cream or pizza
For an embrace, a kiss,
A smile long enough to hold time;
Broken pieces of life
May at times times explode,
But cannot come together
In time or hope.
We are doomed, –
We have become
The Whirlwind’s tail.