The Sparrow
It started in the dark and early hours.
Kyiv—asleep, enjoying blissful dreams.
Then missiles streaked. Explosions. Debris showers.
Smashing walls and windows. Sirens. Screams.
Ivan recalled this, walking Podil’s streets.
No patrons enjoying coffee and cigarettes.
Abandoned stores were still. Some rubble heaps.
He wept to see the dusty sign of Horobets.
His chocolate shop, untouched, was somehow spared
and just as he had left it weeks before.
He slowly climbed the three familiar stairs,
welcomed by the bells upon the door.
The smells of char and plaster were replaced
by toasted chocolate—now more bittersweet,
and for a moment, the war had been erased,
until he turned and looked out at the street.
Atop a mound of broken cinder blocks,
a sparrow found a twisted rebar branch
and perched as if the world had never stopped,
as though tomorrow still possessed a chance.
Ivan turned back and faced his little shop.
He tied his apron, ignoring roaring rockets.
Despite the sirens and machine gun pops,
he said, “Still someone has to make the chocolate.”
Michael Pietrack is a poet based in Grand Junction, Colorado. He is known for his narrative poetry and novels written in verse, including Legacy: The Saga Begins (2023) and Boone (2026). He has placed three times in the Society of Classical Poets International Competition with “Ballerina,” “The Loons of Colby Lake,” and “Grindstone.”
Your poetry is getting better and better Michael – this is very powerful, and I love the final ‘dissonant’ rhyme of ‘rockets/chocolate’ – deeply excellent work.