[ Pic by: Anas al-Shareef/Reuters]
A place that was once his home
was ripped open by airstrikes
Everyone in the house
died that night
Buried under the rubble
He tried to claw them out
With his bare hands
For hours
Screaming for help
No one came
As dawn broke
He sat on his bed
In silence
Nothing more to be done
The screams turned to water and ran down his cheeks
Falling, silently, just as they had fallen,
He was left alive
He didn’t understand why
No words would come
He sat motionless, watching the sunrise
The walls of his home
Had crumbled and he could now see
Things he has never seen before
Everything was in shambles
The sky didn’t mind
the sun didn’t care
Rising as it always does
Brilliant colours splashed across
The perfect juxtaposition
To the pain the earth has to bear
of diminishing humanity
speak of, should we dare?
Sashikala Premawardhane
7 February 2024
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Sashi's Space 