We should have heard
the blasts of the trumpets
that morning, encircling us,
we caged in, imagining
ourselves to be innocents.

We should have heard
before that day, but we
had chosen deafness,
and the cries, the threats
of warning were
so easily cast aside.

As the walls fell
around us we realized
that we had no escape
and we cried to our God
as they cried out to theirs
one God or no God,
all of us abandoned,
all reduced back
to ashes
to dust.

First appeared in Hot Pot Magazine, Issue 16 – Uncensored, December 2024
https://hotpotmagazine.com/2024/12/27/issue-16-listening/