Kolasch.com

Distant bombs shift the dust
smothering everything.
Fingerprints and footprints cover
bookshelves, open photo albums
where tiny handprints cover a baby boy’s
face, smearing his smile through
the dust, eyes pale blue and slightly yellow.
Covering the woman on the beach, polka
dot bikini as grey as her smile.
Prints on the books,
through the pages of Moby Dick,
Great Expectations, and The Great
Gatsby. Footprints have patrolled
back and forth and back and forth
across the mantle. It’s hard to tell
what kind of wood, but it shines maroon
where the dust has been paced away.

Like our trail through snow, tramped down
by booted feet, step in time, clatter
of buckles and bullets and cans
of food and guns slung. Or ash
from our fire keeping coats and boots
dry, heating the tin of baked beans
and pork to fill stomachs
lined with ash from bombed
bodies and buildings in London.

JKolasch