Tehran, March

Black water gathers on every surface.
Every breath carries this war into a million
darkening lungs. Blood not yet shed courses
through bodies rigid with fear, carrying
chemicals whose names are suddenly,
grimly familiar: nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide,
methane, carbon monoxide, benzene.
Even children absorb the irony of eating
poisoned food. They taste what they cannot
see. Ramadan is over now and they are free
to ingest the fruit of this earth and work
of human hands.