Suicide Bomb – By Fern G. Z. Carr
cavernous thunder
shattering normalcy
sirens
cries, shrieks, moans,
whispers
shards of metal and glass
raining in torrents
rat-a-tat-tat
rat-a-tat-tat
chests impaled by metal girders
corpses
crushed, smashed
oozing blood
eyeballs frozen wide open
in terror, coated
in soot
body parts strewn asunder –
a finger here,
still wearing a wedding ring
a foot there,
some toes missing,
slight movement
under the rubble, then
stillness.
FERN G. Z. CARR is a director of Project Literacy, lawyer, teacher and past president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She is a member of and former Poet-in-Residence for the League of Canadian Poets. Carr composes and translates poetry in five languages while currently learning Mandarin Chinese. A 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee, she has been published extensively world-wide from Finland to the Seychelles. In addition to multiple prizes and awards, honours include being cited as a contributor to the Prakalpana Literary Movement in India; her poetry having been taught at West Virginia University and set to music by a Juno-nominated musician; an online feature in The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper; and her poem, “I Am”, chosen by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate as Poem of the Month for Canada. Carr is thrilled to have one of her poems presently orbiting the planet Mars aboard NASA’S MAVEN spacecraft. www.ferngzcarr.com