Palmyra Poem by Doug Lane

Somehow
the ruins of a Roman city
made it all the way
to the 21st Century
in Syria
before a mad caliphate
blew them up.
What had survived
2,000 years
dynamited in minutes
by a regime
gone
within months.

And the Yashidi,
a very ancient sect,
were overrun,
their men murdered,
their women
pressed into service
as war brides
for ISIS
warriors.

"We'll last
just long enough, "
said the occupiers,
"to ruin everything
for everyone else."