The last to die in an air raid

The last to die in an air raid

In a family of five

Was a boy with two dead eyes—

The news reported. 

Or perhaps not,

Why should one bother 

For he becomes one of the many victims 

The moment they telecast his two dead eyes on screen.

Pain can be collective in this world of wars,

But loss and grief are one’s own.

And grief finds no room 

In a world gone numb with pain.

These blood-soaked, bottomless tragedies.

What the news missed was perhaps 

How he was squeezing the last tear remaining,

To mourn the death of a whole world 

Gone numb with pain,

Oh, pain.