Reuters photo
By
Matthew J. Lawler
Never Again
(A Sonnet on Hiroshima)
The night muzzled the breath that beats in lungs
the subtle choke of fear didn’t pretend,
The hills became the glass that broke and lunged
into bones thrust upon war’s ashen end.
I stood and heard the roar from up above
my knees began to buckle at its sight,
Peasants who sought bliss in labor and love
now drink plutonium’s sun in the night.
The last hours came like embers on dry grain
fields became flames of blood, of bomb, of brash,
Enola Gay’s wings spread like clouds of rain
and dropped a monstrous grave, a drunken crash.
The Earth moaned the night Hiroshima fell,
And I stood with arms open, free from hell.
The Outcast
He shuffles through the scrap
unaware of my presence
I approached in a staggered manner
glancing upon his bare feet
as he sifts through a dumpster,
searching, seeking, finding.
He laughs and converses with himself,
looks into me, piercing the barrier
that is between us,
the ego
with its posturing,
suddenly it dawns on me
underneath the moon glow,
that I’m but a mortal man
whose destiny is a tombstone.
I, too, am searching,
I, too, am seeking,
I look at him and see myself,
I, too, am finding.
Matthew J. Lawler
Matthew J. Lawler is a poet and Chicago native. He has been writing poetry since his teenage years, but only recently began to submit to literary journals. His work has appeared in Sick Lit Magazine, The People’s Tribune, Unlost Journal, The Miscreant Magazine, and Caravel Journal. You can find him at www.facebook.com/matthewjlawlerpoet.
The last line of 'Never Again' is a heart-stopper. Excellent.
Thank you Amaya! I appreciate it. I just tried to visualize what I would have done in that situation. Sometimes we can only surrender and let it be, as I imagined it was like for many on that fateful day in Hiroshima.
"Never Again" is indeed a most riveting impactful piece so deserved of being published; It shakes the soul profoundly so much that even though the horror of that particular moment has never died, your poem touching upon it once again has given new life to a generation of people that need to know this must never happen again. "The Outcast" is so very provocative; the clarity of self revelation strikes a sharp reactionary slap of reality against the reader's retinas! I thoroughly enjoyed reading both of these outstanding poems.
Thank you so much Leslie. I only hope that "Never Again" might alter someone's thinking. Human beings need to stop inflicting violence on each other. I only hope that somehow my writing can deter people in power from their maniacal tendencies. Nevertheless I will try as we all should try to promote peace and non violence. "The outcast" was a transcendental experience for me. That brief realization that we are one. belief and pride separates. But the fact that mortality is universal connects us. Thank you again. I appreciate it.