Fallujah

Their teacher sent them home
when the shelling
                           started that morning.

At the hospital the nurses and doctors
prepared for the wounded they were
                           sure would follow.

When the boy made his way home
from school, he found his home
blasted to rubble and neighbors
                           searching through it for his parents

After they were found, still living,
they were taken to the hospital.
Then it was hit by bombs, and they
were killed along with
                           doctors and nurses and other
             patients.

Neighbors took the boy into their
home. They told him he would see his
parents again, and that he would
return to his school. The school
                           was bombed the next day.

The Americans announced they
will rebuild the city when it
                           is cleared of insurgents.

In the boy's neighborhood,
people do not care
                           what the Americans say.

"Ruins" Photograph by Lottie Williams