Bitter Lullabies

Hush now the earth,
is quiet.
Hope, find us here even in these forgotten cracks.
These holes made in the places we call home.
Holes made by the
Hush now,
There are people crying.
Just don’t close your eyes.
This is not a time to sleep
World.

People are surviving somewhere on the same streets
Where the ocean is filled with blood and debris.
Strange cargo adrift.
Doorways, shattered
Windows
Shoes
A roof
Bodies broken
Pieces of life made convoluted and obscene, contorted by the

Hush now,
The ocean does not know what to do with these things that were not made for her.
She spits
And we walk the shore holding our battered bodies and whatever else we can hold.
Holding on to each other, grasping ourselves, our bodies the only point of reference when the earth betrays.

And then there is nothing to hold on to.
Only everyday pieces of life turned absurd.
The familiar fractured, lovers
And mothers taken by the

Hush.
The earth has spoken.
A child cries, and no one hears.
Not just here.
Open your eyes.
You, on the same earth that has mangled and crushed
Hush.
These are no words for a child.