When I Can't Do Anything Else

Aleppo

I didn't know missiles can fly
When it was made and when it was high
I didn't know bullets can kill
When it was there and I felt the thrill
I didn't know people can die
When they were so bloody, left out of lies

I didn't know it was a race to the top
When corpses were piling nonstop
I didn't know I could ever see a mountain so tall
A heap of dismembered limbs, boasting a height higher than Olympus itself

I was confused; the soil was maroon, and the sky was dark
Smoke pillars rose up the clouds in every direction, and every building was either destroyed from explosions
Fire was continuous— it ate everything in its path
It was alive, it was hungry, it always targeted the people who screamed for mercy
The wind tasted of ash and blood, settling on my nose so fitting that I'm already used to it
Dust from toppling cement walls sprinkled my body like a coat; some I inhaled, got stuck in my throat
I can't speak— my words already carry a tightened voice of quaint folly
Keep quiet— listen to the bombs that fall, listen to the bullets that lull, listen to the screams that shout and cull

My voice is quaint, and it's different than yours
One word and I'm asking for a bullet down my gut
My voice is different, and yours is as quaint as I;

Disparate we may be,
We are both human—
But, who's more human?

You or me?

//k.u.

***

NOTE: Dedicated to the shootings in Aleppo, and all over Syria. I hope the best for them. You should, too. Don't forget about the things that's happening around the world!