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Dawn Bomb is my second attempt at writing a memento poem. (My first was written back in 2023: An Old Spanish Love Song.)
The form was created by Emily Romano and is designed to capture a holiday, anniversary, or any meaningful moment.

This poem is written in two stanzas. Each stanza follows the same syllabic pattern:

• Line 1: 8 beats
• Line 2: 6 beats
• Line 3: 2 beats

The pattern repeats once per stanza, creating a rhyme scheme of a / b / c / a / b / c in each section.

Dawn Bomb

the dawn bomb blasted through our streets
exploding sunlit sleep
it screams—
we flail in turmoil, tangled sheets
in startled shock we weep
lost dreams

the city is under attack
the rebels now defy
our law
they want old territory back
the land, the sea, the sky
and war


—Lesley Scoble, January 2026

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Andrew and I had only just settled into our new home in the City of London when a violent explosion tore through the area — one of the IRA attacks that marked the late 1980s and 1990s.

Written for the W3 Poetry prompt #195, which invited us to create a Memento poem.
My thanks to Marion Horton, Poet of the Week, for devising this inspiring and challenging prompt.
My gratitude, as always, to David Bogomolny, who offers us fresh poetic inspirations each week on the W3 Poetry platform.
And of course, my thanks to you, the reader, for spending time with my poem.

W3 Prompt #195: Wea’ve Written Weekly