LatinosUSA

I am a sparrow.
A pretty ordinary brown sparrow.
Every day I flew from tree to tree pecking off the olive groves.
Sometimes even people fed me leftovers.
Life was good, until the big metal roaring birds flew over,
Dropping their big balls of fire.
Now there are no more olive groves.
There are no more houses in rows.
There is only rubble from the exploding bombs.
No more standing houses, no more happy sounds
The sky is no longer blue.
There is just destruction everywhere you look.
There are not many people around.
The few that are, are looking at me.
Am I their only hope for food that they can see?

Copyright © 2025 Sharmini Rogers
All Rights Reserved

Sharmini was born in Malaysia and received a medical degree from India. She practiced as a doctor in Malaysia before getting married and moving to America.  She received a Master’s in Public Health and worked in the Missouri State Health Department for 21 years. She has been a Columbia, Missouri, resident for 33 years. She started writing poems in college and then short stories after she came to the US. Now that she is retired, she is spending more time writing poems and short stories. She has a publication in the 2013 publications of Interpretations: a marriage of visual and literary artists by the Missouri Columbia Art League.  Her passions are cooking, writing and painting.