She Breaks

She breaks
   and crumbles
like the building that once housed
her dishes and hand-woven mats
Before her
   the dust covered child
lies open
with his life draining into
the earth,
a rubble covered, unrecognizable
patio, the play yard of her son.
Where his chubby legs
   took tentative steps
   toward her
Arms reaching – eyes laughing
  to be caught and held closely.

Somewhere distant
   the decision was made
not in her Mosul Jidideh neighborhood
but the Strategies and Calculations
   about her flesh
   about her blood
   about her life
without her input were
Somewhere she could not reach.

As her hands and fingers
   extended to caress,
M o m e n t s, Acres of time
   cut through her existence
   cut through her soul
and the distance 
   stretched and elasticated 
   outward
until the whistle
           and burst
           and fire
ate space
and that small boy
with his trusting eyes
   and smile.
Ripped and torn and fragmented
   to the ground
   on the ruinous wreckage
   of their sun-soaked day.

She melts
   and evaporates
This mother of now no one
Her own young blood
   pouring over 
   her only child