Gehenna

By Arsch Sharma

How do I tell you what lies in this landfill,

Why a dozen and a half arms rise from the earth?

That, through soot and sweat,

Beyond sleep and the bottle lies a world of steel and hunger

Where men carrying rocks,

And women carrying rocks and infants

Strike the earth for bread.

They must make room for a thousand hearts that fall dead from the sky:

Hearts which will sprout armband flesh to blame the heavens

Out of tiredness,

And will bleed salt and decay in this very soil,

Before the eyes of all that’s human,

Until they’re heard.

By Arsch Sharma