An Unreal Farewell

(A Villanelle on the bombing of Hiroshima)

A flash struck the morning and the city fell,
all was ghost in the twinkling of an eye,
the fire sunk into earth like flames from hell.

The “Little Boy” blood bomb burst from its shell
and quaked the world below and world up high,
a flash struck the morning and the city fell.

Bones laid soaked in the “black rain’s” horrid smell
as the devil descended from the sky,
the fire sunk into earth like flames from hell.

A vaporous fog crawled into lungs unquelled
and bodies flooded the river nearby,
a flash struck the morning and the city fell.

The ground now lies in gore where zombies dwell
as a thousand melting suns flowed by,
the fire sunk into earth like flames from hell.

It all seemed a dream, an unreal farewell
as one-hundred and thirty-thousand died,
a flash struck the morning and the city fell,
the fire sunk into earth like flames from hell.

Matthew J. Lawler is a poet and Chicago native. He has been published in numerous literary journals, including, The Miscreant, Sick Lit Magazine, Caravel, Visual Verse, Unlost, Tuck Magazine, People's Tribune, forthcoming in an anthology( The Best Emerging Poets of Illinois) by Z Publishing. He lives to write and writes to live. You can find him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/matthewjlawlerpoet Read other articles by Matthew J..