"The shell has opened into an esplanade.
People pour out, half-formed and opinionated.
The pouring is part of a plot that
is only readable in reverse.
For hundreds of days, women and kids defended their city
with curses.
Men carried onions to them across a lake
half a foot thick to put vitamins in their blood.
Praying in blinding, you feel what's
happening at these times.
A girl turns again and again to make sure she
can believe what she's seen.
Then for the others, and the mice, she digs for bread."