Whole Burned

Cattle to the slaughter, wood slatted carriage, Travelled reek of human waste, of fear, despair; Anguished weeps the daughter on parents fused in marriage, Crematoria arms embrace, emaciated, bare. Where grow the flowers now, fields once were green, Whole burned the constellation, razed to the root; Of why, what for and how, her cornflower eyes had seen Her race in conflagration, ground by heel of boot. She held the corpses tight as lime stabbed her eyes And tears raped each cheek and reason fled her mind; Where is love and light, the God who never dies, The saviour of the meek, the Lord of humankind? Haunting, ashen billows, flesh to choke the heavens, Drifted from the towers, ravaging the sun; She fell beneath the willows, at the age of seven, Whole burned among dead flowers, salvation from a gun...