I read in the paper

That they had shot you at last,

And my mind wandered back

To that day, long gone past,

When my family stopped

At a hotel in Rhodes,

Just when a terrorists bomb

Was about to explode.

We were there on vacation:

Three weeks in the sun.

And that was the day

Our vacation begun.

I’d stopped for a paper

And they’d all gone ahead.

How was I to know?

That they’d all soon be dead…

And I would escape

With a few bruises and scars.

I can still see the look

On the face of Papa’...

As the first shockwave hit him

And tossed him aside,

Then came the fireball

And all of them died.

There was no other sound

But the explosion to hear,

As blood, bone and debris

Went high into the air:

Glass from the buildings

Of two streets away

Would lacerate victims

As it came down like rain.

Then came the screaming,

The sirens and moans,

And the realization,

That I was left all alone.

Papa was gone,

With his children and wife,

And I’m told, “I was lucky

To escape with my life”.

But I didn’t feel lucky,

I still don’t today,

I feel guilty and angry

That they were taken away:

That somebody, somewhere,

Had ended their lives,

And guilty because

I had dared to survive.

Well it wasn’t too long

Before you bragged to the press,

That you had planted the bomb

To punish the West…

For some misguided grievance:

Some imaginary wrong,

But all I know for sure,

Is that my family are gone.

And I’ve tried to forgive you

As hard as I can,

But I don’t have it in me,

Because I can’t understand

What explanation

There ever could be,

For someone to slaughter

My whole family.

You murdered my Mother.

You murdered my Brother

You murdered my Papa’

And Sister as well,

Now somebody’s shot you

Thank God that they got you.

“I hope that you’re down there...

And burning in Hell.”

S.E.Ralph

29-10-2011