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| A man breathes through an oxygen mask as another one receives treatment, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday Reuters via The Independent, April 6, 2017. |
The heart overflows,
a deluge of hard
salty rain that can’t
wash away
the yellow fog that rusts
the sheet-metal sky,
fills lungs with fluid
and foam
or obscure the naked
and torn, the rows
of pale corpses
in the streets.
Sorrow’s burnt offering
of smoke and dust
scorches the throat,
sears the tongue
of the world.
Antonia Clark has taught creative writing and co-administers an online poetry forum, The Waters. She is the author of the poetry chapbook Smoke and Mirrors and the full-length collection Chameleon Moon. Her poems and stories have appeared in numerous journals, including The Cortland Review, Eclectica, The Pedestal Magazine, and Rattle.