Air Raid Shelter

How should I tell it? The papers warned

of danger north and south,

and from the sky. The block leaders,

old women, showed how to dig

a shelter in the yard, though we doubted

a three meter ditch could save anyone.

But we kept digging

till one day we struck a coffin,

the rotten lid giving way

at the first touch of the spade.

Inside, a leathery skeleton,

tumbled ribs, eyes like dark dry wells.

My first real taste of death,

its stench. I dropped the spade and ran.

After that, I steered clear of the place

as if I could shun the dead.