We Walking Sleepers

We Walking Sleepers
Prompt: use the following words in a poem:
forgotten friend fire fear fog free forest feet

careful feet, carnal fear
toes gently prodding away debris
we are survivors of this nation
we are sufferers of conflagration
walk silently or die
not violently or die

ashy clouds hang low among the trees
and raindrops pierce our skin like thorns
carbonized buildings stand crooked
they are the gravestones of our city
but we are not buried here today
no, we’re not buried or dead today

we wish we were

smoke like fog, searing fire
and we can’t see and we can’t breathe
move quietly or die
move quickly and defiantly
but move quietly or die

the sirens that never sounded
delivered us the enemy
planes that donate hell and fire like coins
to our poor city, to the unsuspecting sleepers
and men fight each other for survival
chased by fear and flames tonight,
eyes slick with tears, streets slick with burning flesh

forest walkers, freedom wishers
we are strangers and we are friends
keep walking or we’ll die
keep running or we’ll die

this is what it means to be innocent
to feel the scratch of pulverized city in your lungs
to inhale the vaporized remains of everything you’ve done,
everything you’ve known, and to feel it burn, history in flames
we breathe, and there’s the neighbor’s fingers in my chest
we breathe, there’s the simmering ash of fresh paint
we breathe the death of friends and neighbors
and we run, no longer strangers,
stumbling through the quaking, crumbling forest
escaping civilization which has forgotten
what it means to be civilized

we carry on, we are not dead
we fire breathers, we memory keepers
we few survivors, we walking sleepers
we are not dead
we are not dead

we wish we were

Line Count: 46