War is over.
not with banners,
not with noise,
but with silence
I no longer dread.
I no longer check the skies
for smoke or signs.
No more scanning
the wreckage
for what could’ve been saved.
I stopped wishing
the ending was kinder.
Stopped rewriting
the chapters
that had already closed.
Instead,
I clear a space,
and I plant seeds
where I once
dug trenches.
And here,
without needing
anything back,
I water the soil.
I choose what grows.
Peace did not come
with a flag or a sign,
it simply settled
where I began
to grow.