LIKE NEVER BEFORE

Tank shells struck a hospital outside

Wounding sixty and killing four

Inside her small house the mother waited, petrified.

Terrified of what was in store.

 Rescue workers pulled bodies out of the wreckage

 Of an air strike

 Adding some more

Numbers

Some tragic numbers

 To the collateral damage

 Of senseless gore.

Inside, the terrified mother waited

 Herself she berated

 For having earlier been stern to her brat pack.

“Do not go out to play”, she had screamed at them,

The rising tide of panic trying to stem.

 Ah they have come, there was some noise at the door

And some weird nondescript roar.

Towards the door she raced

 Yes, she knew they were waiting to be embraced.

They always came yelling and screaming to her

“Mom, we are back”, as though a victory they had scored.

But now it was she who screamed like never before.

Screamed harder

Louder

 Than ever before.

 Screamed for them

 Screamed for what was left of them.

In a stupor anguished, she gathered the tiny thing to her breast

There were lacerations and bruises on his little chest

 Yes, it was a thing, a weird thing

A thing which just an hour back was the king

Of her household.

Now the thing had been reduced to nothing

His locks were golden, who had painted them red instead?

  

On the floor the five year old lay, lifeless and cold

 On his side lay his eight year old   sister

The dazed mother bent down and kissed her.

“Do you have any clue

 Why her frock which was blue

 Now has a new hue

And where is my son’s shoe?

Have any clue?”

In a trance she mumbled

 Looking wildly all around, in his golden locks with shaking fingers she fumbled.

Then she cried like never before

 Cried harder

 Louder

Than ever before.

 Cried for them

Cried for what was left of them

Like never before.

Clutched the football

And the doll

 To her breast and cried like never before.

Unheard went her screams and cries

 Like never before.