run home children

they told you
to hide under your wooden
desks
as the sirens blared.
they told you to run
home
to your burning
houses, your scorched
lawns,
to your parents now
skeletons
in their chairs.
they told you
to find shelter in a
basement, to not
breathe in
the radiated air,
they told you
to save food and water,
they told you not
to be scared, but
even now after all
these years, you still
are.