Written by Romy Morreo
AFTER A BOMBING | Artwork by Doren Robbins
In between snow drifts and abandoned firearms, emaciated birds pick at the carcasses. Crows with blood-wet beaks shield the sparrows, standing sentry while they gorge. Embers of a war with no winners burn lonely by the wayside.
Morningsong echoes, not through the air but through memory. Under the uniforms, intestines are fattened worms. Starlings flutter down to feast; magpies hop, tentative, to take their fill. Tired sirens make their final pleas somewhere far away.
Decapitated, a once-loved dolly lies alone on a nearby driveway, stuffing spilling from her tears.
Incident report: they trusted their eyes, and declared no more. Empty hands snatched up shotguns and took to their own streets, for the children and the birds to last one more night alive.
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Romy Morreo (she/they) completed her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester. Her work has most recently been published in Twin Flame Literary and Full House Literary, with further pieces forthcoming in Divinations Magazine, Paraselene Lit, Moonday Mag, and Silcrow Press. She lives in the UK.