Girl
By ELIZABETH BROOKE-CARR
Rome: School bomb kills girl (ODT 21/5/12)
Her death will stayin greenstick memory long after
assessments are complete
and the bones of fractured morning
have been laid to rest
only sixteen
sweet taste of life
on her lips and laughter
lingering late with friend
sat the gate
when the bell tolled
screaming sirens flashed
along intricate lanes
of political highway
towards the intersection
of books strewn like torn cartilage
from the bodies of plump satchels,
homework forever marked
by treachery with the vile pen
of an assassin's plot,and the promising young
day in smithereens.
- Elizabeth Brooke-Carr is a Dunedin poet.
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