Schrodinger’s Bomb Shelter (winner Honorable Mention Literary Taxidermy poetry contest 2022)

Of my country and of my family

I have little to say.

Amber waves of grain

Little amber mostly grey

Allegiances pledged

To the emperor of rubble

Future held hostage

By proselytized trouble

Missiles come

And childhoods go

Gieger’s counting

Not yuletide snow

Sol became an enemy

Streams became acid

Fights for water and food

Left dreams dead and placid

Human kindness

Cowering in caves

Mansions once secure

Now looted in waves

Murder for MRE’s

Ramen noodle gangs

Antibiotics like gold

In secret alleyways

Medical care

A drudge’s dream

It’s better to die

Than nurture self-esteem

My family, they say

Is camped below ground

Schrödinger’s bomb shelter

grassy burial mound.

Like Hitler youth

They turned in our names

Red hats were deployed 

To bash in our brains

No time for laughter

Convicted by juries

The finger pointers finally

ran out of pointees.

No one left to guard us

No one left to care

Appeals to deaf ears

Breakout, we dared.

Freedom was not free

As we left the prison bars

To seek the only asylum

Kin’s hearth harbors

We searched the lands

For our turncoat family

Hoping they’d changed

Wishing they’d act selflessly

Love doesn’t care about

The color of hat one wears

What will we find

If we go down the stairs?

Hiked across hills

Forded creeks and rivers

To the old family farm

Where brave heart quivers

 Reach for the handle

The cracked hatch makes a frown

Will they be unchanged?

Going down!

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