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@rock-rex.bsky.social Oct 4, 2026, 8:10 PM

"Neverland".

#poem #poetry #skypoets #blueskypoets #poetsofbluesky #poetrycommunity #writingcommunity #choughbooks #poemsonconflict

There is a small child lying in the dark,
a tight-pulled knot of hunger, thirst, and fear,
not knowing what has happened to her home
and friends
and parents.
Though she doesn’t understand,
she has a hard-gained sick familiarity
with sharp small-arms fire, dull explosions,
shattered buildings, falling dust,
has grown accustomed to the screams
and to the screaming silence,
waking and in dream.

She can’t remember who she is —
has lost her name, her playfulness,
her curiosity, affection, warmth.

She can’t remember where she lived:
in Syria, or Yemen, or Sudan, or Palestine,
Iran, Ukraine, or Lebanon....?
So many lands she might have once called
home;
they’ve merged
into a broken nightmare,
filled with smoke.

It billows from a burnt-out tank,
from blocks of flats and hospitals,
from camp-fires,
crematoria, and cigarettes
that glow in sentried night —
smoke is the substance,
grief the form of war.

earlier version published in Poems on Conflict (Chough Books, 2022)

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