Hornets

Bodies on a spit above starving flames.
Flesh roasting and kerosene riding wind.
Hornets shriek in their patrols.
Engines whine and tremors wake.

Corpses flung in pits of sludge.
Rings fall to mercenary hands.
A man on the toilet stares ahead.
Rotting lakes hold no flies.

A blue ball bouncing in a forest of ash.
A child's giggle in dead concrete homes.
eyes fixate. dart. stop. start.
Thoughts stop.

Feet rest in shattered caskets.
Boots squelch in marshes.
A baby trundles to its mother.
Then a sulfur cloud.

A mother never touches her daughter again.