Plague Victims Catapulted Over Walls Into Besieged City

Early germ
Warfare. The dead
Hurled this way look like wheels
In the sky. Look: there goes
Larry the Shoemaker, barefoot, over the wall,
And Mary Sausage Stuffer, see how she flies,
And the Hatter twins, both at once, soar
Over the parapet, little Tommy’s elbow bent
As if in a salute,
And his sister, Mathilde, she follows him,
Arms outstretched, through the air,
Just as she did
On earth.