Shadow Poem by David G Allen

Shadow
By David Allen

She'll be skipping
that rope forever.
The young girl
left her impression
on the brick wall
outside her Hiroshima home.
The atomic bomb's blast
caught her in mid-air,
capturing her shadow
for the curious
as long as the wall stands.

I wonder,
does anyone know who she was?
A child caught up in the conflict
between nations, wanting
only to finish her jump rope chant
before the school bell rang;
one of the thousands thrown
onto what comes after,
at 8: 16 on a Monday morning.