Destruction

by Sofia Aspes

I’ve never been there,
I can only use my imagination,
to feel what they feel.
And if I try to be empathetic,
if I try to imagine myself in that situation,
I can only think about destruction.
destruction.
Everything they saw, they did, they felt
was in some way about destruction.
Every time they thought about their lives,
they thought about destruction.
They’re born in destruction.
So they’ve never been aware of that.
But in every thing they did,
there was a chance
to cure that destruction
A chance to repair what the war,
the fear, death, loneliness
broken inside them.
And I’ve never been there
but if I try to imagine myself
in these destroyed fears
in that destroyed country
something in my soul brakes
and I can feel that destruction
even inside my body.

Written by Sofia Aspes as part of Poetry as Commemoration workshops led by Mark Granier in North Wicklow Educate Together Secondary School, Bray in September 2023.