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Remember, you said, that day. People
falling from the sky like stars,
burnt out flares unable to cling on. Fire
in the sky metal crashing above. Remember
how it felt as you looked up at the
heavens, the noise deafened
and the dust from the stars crumbled
into your eyes. Horrorstruck, was this the end?
Remember the smell, flesh, iron roasting
cheap like a giant barbecue in the sky
while all around the grey dust of construction
falling like haze on an early morn.
You screamed but no one
heard amidst the noise of a world gone mad.
You cried in vain for what you
couldn’t hold, then forgot as
the years flashed by and they made plans anew
leaving you out of it. No use to no one
anymore. Remember how you forgot
it all, buried in your life, the chores, the rush
and swirl of work, the demands
of modernity. Remember how she felt falling,
burning, crying. But do remember
how a madman rose in the sky
one day to steal the future leaving her
with tears and nothing else except a few
burnt out shreds. Remember.
Shirani Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan poet and author. She won the Cha “Betrayal” Poetry Contest 2013. Her collection of short stories, Breaking News (Vijitha Yapa 2011) was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award. Shirani’s work appears or is forthcoming in Linnet’s Wings, Channels, Spark, Berfrois, Poets Basement, Earthen Lamp Journal, Asian Cha, Dove Tales, Buddhist Poetry Review, About Place Journal, Skylight 47, The Smoking Poet, New Verse News, The Occupy Poetry Project and anthologies Poems for Freedom, Voices Israel Poetry Anthology 2012, Song of Sahel, Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, World Healing World Peace and Every Child Is Entitled to Innocence.