through ruins

through ruins
june 2021

the ruins
were more
than enough
to start with,
stones,
bricks
dislocated
in scatters
across
divided
earth,
they turned
to dust in
the hand,
still we
wetted that
stirred with
trowel and
sculpted
it into walls
of houses,
streets we
planted
in moments,
some green,
some rose,
some grey
as old news
of a ‘new
world
order’,
soon the
bombs fell
from the sky
like un-inventions,
science in service
of murder,
blew structures
like straws across
the fields, stones,
bricks to build
with from
the ruins,
raised our
children
to lay their
bodies out
in tears, bury
them with
broken toys,
the grief just
too much dust
in the throat,
dry as these
words that
buy nothing,
the grief hardened
to cartridges we
shot into our
ancient hearts,
chests intact,
we built the
stories of their
never to be had
futures onward,
turned our cheek
to our selves,
the knowing ones
said it would only
be a matter of time,
matter no matter
matter of the times

The music is from the adagio of Dmitri Shostakovich’s
Symphony No. 7, “Leningrad”, performed here in a recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.