Poetry by Mikels Skele
1. Panic.
A bomb falls on a hospital
some children are sealed in a cave
a sleeping trucker slams into a minivan
someone fails to notice a birthday
A rock as big as a house falls on Siberia
a pope sneezes, an earthquake
splits a graveyard in two
Leaves are falling
can you hear their names?
Can you count the dust motes
in a stray sunbeam before it’s gone?
God, on the other hand,
knowing everything, sees nothing
2. Surrender.
You waken in the night,
alone and terrified
Dead on arrival, stillborn,
accepting nothing, seeing only
beginning and end; you would cry out
but who would hear?
Imagine a fish, surrounded by water,
salt, tiny organisms in their billions
rubbing its scales, trying to understand
the meager oxygen gleaned in its gills
The blood of oceans courses your veins
your breath is volcanic vapor
your sinews the strands of time
you are the means by which
electrons communicate, nothing more
Mikels Skele, having retired from archaeology, spends his time writing poetry, essays and short stories. He maintains two blogs, Exiles Child for poetry and Omniop for prose. His poetry was regularly featured in VerseWrights.
Vita Brevis Press. 
You can tell an archaeologist wrote this poem.