Nightmare

by Attracta Fahy

night was an endless organ of dust,
so little light, and no one I knew.
Bodies grey with ash, fire scalding screams
from children melting in flames

I can’t say if it was smoke, or wings
from a child out of reach.
A burning car, no one saved
there, not there; arms clutched
helpless what I couldn’t touch.

Orange flares lit a pear tree
near a doorway. Trying to run,
my tongue pulsing, a thousand tongues screaming
names
No one answered

Bags of pulverised flesh;
air so hot it vapourised
Over a red sky, shrapnel and gunfire etched
the faces of children into one syllable.
No one cared

Hubris rustled along the walls of Medea.
Shouts of defiance, lewd luscious
crowd drunk in bloodthirsty lust,
spew fury in laughter
cheering at the slaughter

My psyche a country of witness
trying to get out, to wake up,
A great anger rises
shadows scrolling death over my screen
my bed drenched with sweat.
But not for the dead -
for the living