Dismembered

to remember means to put back       
together


stop trying to fit these cindered arms inside your      pink backpack 
just use this white garbage bag
‘I  take out my         pencil case’


parts of childhood in various sizes      a mixed bag of memories–picked
unripe from a burning olive tree
                      no      like charcoal

what made this place so      grey? 

         this dust that never settles

         this smoke that chokes    the daylight out

         these tombstone hills

         these fragments of    human shield

              a graphite story    anxiously rubbed, but never fully erased

have you seen how 
this six year old carries
this six story building
like hiding beneath his blanket
all but the    voice 
of his father     screaming 
his name-          crushes him


how will you put us back
together