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The Aftermath
Meaning is over there,
beyond the burnt paddocks
and blackened hills,
the crumpled, flattened ruins
of houses. It is further out
than that nothingness glazed
upon the distances
of a vacant stare.
A powdery dust now coates
the walls of a terrible absence.
There is a gaping silence,
a hole emptied of screams,
of moans, cries given up
to heaven. What was living
has been burnt back
to where only
a dull numbness
chafes against passing time.
Melted pots poke through
a tangle of charcoaled waste.
Memories, lifetimes crumble
into flakes of ash and amongst
the rubble,
a fire blackened teddy bear
with outstretched arms
seems baked in a posture
of perpetual still,
holding onto something
beyond the reach of fire.
Copyright ©
Paul Willason
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