Poem with Disregarded Sign

The sound of imminent death from aerial 
bombardment as mouthed by witnesses— a high 
pitched shoooooosh prior to rapid descent

It seems impossible that the word Дети for children
chalked in tall white letters in the front and back
of the theatre could not be seen from the air

On the face of this libretto
a stage stripped naked of curtains and lights
and a score of snapped wires

Wouldn't you rather the wind wielded 
its sharpest knives or that nothing but the sun  
detonated its carbon into the atmosphere

Wouldn't you rather have ordinary
death rather than terror tunnel 
through the world

Have only rain and mud 
mushrooms and butterflies
stir up graves in cemeteries