For Aleppo
April is the cruelest month of all
said the crow
as she sat in mourning
near the crumbled wall
of the hospital
where they had removed
ten tender bodies
next to the last pediatrician
who wouldn’t leave the city
In the olden days,
it was to a port
near those very same walls
that an obstinate old whale
dragged Jonas
and wouldn’t let him
escape his gift of prophecy
Can’t turn your face away
from the evil that was wrought
upon your fellow beings
on the land, the air and the sea
Can’t turn away
cried the crow
as she pecked at the salt
of indifference and deception
to make its gullet
Turn it into tears.
Pina Piccolo, 30 April 2016