
NAGASAKI 1945
(After an eyewitness account by Dr Tatsuichiro Akizuki) At 10.30 the siren sounded,
at 11 o’clock the all-clear.
Sticking a needle into a patient,
I heard a drone
as the plane, lost in the cloud,
dropped her baby. It fell silently
one and a half miles from its target.
It fell for 40 seconds,
and in that 40 seconds,
every move that people made
became a choice between life and death. Strike.
The buildings turned red.
Electricity poles bloomed like matches,
trees li

RETURN (For the Chibok girls)
Doubled by her child
your child spoiled
shop soiled sex
machined for soul-
less soldiers invaded
knocked up battered.
Your child hangs
between girl and
mother you force
anger down cradle
her and hers You hear but
can’t listen . Bones
of bruised face
the same eyes yet not
look inwards
hooded Not knowing
her future not
wanting that past
Strung between there
and here somewhere
she remains. Finola Scott's poems and short sto