After the war

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.