Yesterday Was Home

Anhelina Ohorodnyk
Mar 8
2 min read

Bright sun above, loud laughter near,

Grandma’s pancakes - warm and dear.

That was a life we used to know,

That was a yesterday, long ago.

Today the colors fade to grey,

The warmth of home is torn away.

Fear fills the streets, lives in our eyes,

Even the silence sounds like cries.

Children have seen what they should not,

Death too close, time overwrought.

Small hands learned how to say goodbye,

Before they learned the reason why.

They should have played, they should have dreamed,

Not watched the sky tear at the seams.

Not known the sound of bodies falling,

Or learned which siren means keep running.

I want to go back, just for a while,

To careless plans, to one small smile.

When night was dark, but never last,

Not something haunted by the past.

I fear the phone I have to check,

The breaking news, the final text.

Each message feels like one more test:

Who’s still alive? Who couldn’t rest?

No light at night, no water runs,

No heat to fight the frozen dawns.

Yet still we stand, though torn apart,

With burning courage in our heart.

We all will carry scars unseen,

If not on skin - then deep within.

This war will live inside our heads,

In empty rooms, in unsent texts.

In every laugh that comes too late,

In every dream we can’t escape.

In children who grew old too fast,

Trapped in a future shaped by past.

We didn’t choose this weight we bear,

This constant knot of fear and prayer.

We didn’t choose to learn goodbyes

Before we learned how not to cry.

And when the night feels endless, black,

When hope itself seems not to come back,

We stand - not brave, not without fear,

But simply because we are still here.

Because if we fall, the truth will die,

And silence will replace the cries.

The sky will close. The world will turn.

And no one left will stop to mourn.

So we remain - with shaking hands,

On broken ground, in shattered lands.

Not heroes. Just the ones who live,

Carrying wounds we can’t forgive.

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