<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">After</font><div style="font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">On this day after my country bombed</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">a girls’ school</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">across the world,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">part of me does not</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">wish to meet the day.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">But just after dawn,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I wake to the relentless</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">honking, honking</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">of geese returning</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">from far away</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">to make a home again</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">in our yard.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I want to rewrite</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">yesterday so every girl</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">who went to school</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">also came home</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">to her family,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">so every mother and father</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">woke this morning knowing</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">their child was safe in their bed.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I am so filled with horror—</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">we killed them—</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">I don’t know how to rise.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">But the great noise</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">of the geese returning,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">that harsh and strangled sound,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">pulls me into the world</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">to meet whatever the day brings.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">A goose wanders past my window,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">regal with her long black throat,</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">proof that life goes on.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Even when we can’t imagine how.</font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9);"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;">Even then.</font></div></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><br></font></div><div dir="auto" style="white-space: pre-wrap; caret-color: rgb(8, 8, 9); color: rgb(8, 8, 9); font-size: 16px;"><font size="5" style="font-size: 22px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer</font></div></div></body></html>