Nanking

women
just like me
twenty thousand
to
eighty thousand
daughters, sisters, mothers, lovers
babies on a bayonet

grains of sand
through the fingers
of men

they spared
my aunt the one
with plump lips
who threw a blanket
to hide my father
in his bassinet
when the soldiers stormed in

a shame
a sham
a scar
a war

a silence that won't go away