Air Strike

cloth doll,
hair tangled
& face charred
button smile
half missing but
upturned, as if
looking into
the ashy sky
chubby hand
cradles the doll,
her mother’s perfume
somehow lingers:
vanilla hibiscus
amongst decay
a solider tries
to tear her away
assuring her
they’re being saved
she spots red white
& blue and wonders
if this is who
took her mother
from her

.

Erin Jamieson’s writing has been published in over eighty literary magazines, and her fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her debut novel, Sky of Ashes Land of Dreams, was published by Type Eighteen Books (Nov 2023). Twitter: erin_simmer