Where Has Our City Gone? poetry by Maggie O'Brien at Spillwords.com

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Where Has Our City Gone?

Maggie O'Brien·April 10, 2022

Poetry English

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Where Has Our City Gone?

written by: Maggie O’Brien

@MaggieMobrules

Father! Where has our city gone?
Is God angry? What have I done wrong?
Father! Why is mother always crying?
Why are there rockets and missiles flying?
Why so many bombs and bright flashes?
Why is my schoolyard nothing but ashes?
I think I’ve been as good as gold.
I think I did as I was told.
I can’t imagine what I’ve done wrong.
Father! Where has our city gone?
And the babushka who fed pigeons in the square?
Why is she just lying there?
I’m asking, curious because
She’s asleep in a hole where the square once was.
Father! Father! Hold my hand
Father! Help me understand.
Why we are hiding from explosions that howl
Is the devil above us, on the prowl?
Tell me, do you think he’ll win?
Are we punished for our sins?
Father! Father! Make it right
I promise to pray harder, every night.

“Dear Jesus,
If I’ve been naughty, I’ll make amends
Please just make this horror end.
Amen.
And oh, yes!
P.S
Give us our city back again”

About
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Maggie O'Brien

Maggie O’Brien has an Honours Degree in English and Philosophy from Leeds University. She has spent most of her working life teaching the ‘disenfranchised’ in many parts of the world. She was born and raised in Southmead, Bristol UK of an English mother and an Irish father. She moved to Granard, Ireland in 1996 where she now resides. Active on the Poetry Slam circuit in Bristol throughout 1995, she was a guest poet at the prestigious Cheltenham Arts Festival in the same year and organiser of the Poetry Event at the Bristol Free Festival. She has also been broadcast by the BBC. (She is now also an author).

Latest posts by Maggie O'Brien (see all)

The Good Riddance - October 29, 2024
In Carnations - October 6, 2024
Ebb and Flow - August 19, 2023

Lou Storey

A textbook example of nominative determinism, Lou Storey has always been a storyteller, a fact well illustrated in his art and in his writing. His careers have reflected that as well, first as a creator of idea-based exhibitions for museums, and later as a psychotherapist employing narrative therapies. His art and his writing share qualities of rich texture and detail, examining our capacity to be absurd while allowing a measure of forgiveness for our foibles. Storey and his husband Steve retired in 2021 and moved from New Jersey to Savannah Georgia. “We love everything about Savannah, it is like a city that looks like a park and thinks it’s a small town. Best of all, we can grow bananas in the backyard!”

Treats Only, Please! by Lauren Scott

Creepy cackles from tall, looming trees
startle their jumpy heartbeats as they walk.
Shadows discreetly follow the echoes
while they timidly proceed down the block.

Young voices repeat with conviction,
“It’s just a night for entertainment.”
There’s no need for goosebumps and fear
as their eyes focus on the cracked pavement.

Undeniably sensing they’re not alone,
many follow in their hesitant footsteps,
eager to reach doors and push doorbells
but afraid of frightening special effects....

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