Beverly Finney introduces her poem inspired by the Steve McCurry photograph “Bombed Townscape” at the Art of Poetry event, Hickory Museum of Art on December 12, 2015. Photo courtesy of Roger and Ginny Sanford.

Beverly Finney
AFTER DISASTER
after “Bombed Townscape” by Steve McCurry

How do they do it, those who have

lived a disaster of heartbreak, loss
and the dissolution of the known,

when the landscape around them

has fallen to ruin, and most who have
loved them removed to other shelter?

How do they keep their small fire

of purpose burning to provide just
enough comfort and hope to get

them to the morning of waking

to what to do now, how to survive
through the day of coming to terms

with their dumbfounding grief,

their hollow numbing confusion,
their slow pursuit of another beginning,

or at least a reason and some way

to move on themselves to what there
might be now that what was is gone?