Sepia

With water stains

Yellowed paper

Tied with thin string

Black and white

Photographs

Taken years ago

Smiles and stern

Dispositions

Peer out

From a window

Into the past

The distant sound

Of whirring gears

And bombs flying

The trembling

Paralyzation

Of the far off

Boom resounding

In your ears

A faint pungent

Smell

Of ashes

And gunpowder

Of freshly baked 

Pies and scones

The clink of tin

And the rustle of 

A bloodied skirt

Creased frowns

And weary eyes

Unheard but felt

Heavy sighs

A crescendo of screams

That fade away

Into a pianissimo

Of hopeful whispers

War and bloodshed

And sunny fields

Of sunflowers

Marred by a trail 

Of pitch black smoke

Polluting

And reaping

Lives 

But never revealing

Why

Or at what cost.