We woke up to sky!
Stabbed through by steel
Roof sheets ripped and folded back
Rebar clawed from split concrete
Brick dust packed in our mouths
Stairwells crushed into themselves
Windows cut our boots to threads
Water ran through power lines
Homes reduced to parts and scrap
We woke up to sky!
Stoves tipped over
Wires hanging like pulled veins
Nothing burned. Nothing screamed.
Walls ripped open. Lives lost.
No warning left
No shelter standing
Only ground where the living remained
We did not scatter
We did not leave
We stood in the broken frame
No cover left
No higher ground
Just survivors holding strong
We woke up to sky!
Days without order
Cold, in rain-soaked clothes
Hands split open lifting shelter
Blood mixing straight into dust
We slept beside what used to hold us
Wrapped in tarps and borrowed coats
Food came late. Water was thin.
Darkness stretched through every night
We woke up to sky!
No future named
Only counting who was still here
What was taken stayed taken
What remained stood through the pain
Between collapse
And first repair
Through every frozen, sleepless night
We did not fold
We did not kneel
We held the line in silence
No flags raised
No voices led
Just weight refusing movement
We woke up to sky!
We rebuilt without permission
No banners. No applause.
The work itself became the voice
The work itself became the bond
The sound of labor
Filled the air
Where silence used to sit
We stayed
We stood
We rebuilt
Not clean
Not fast
Not untouched
What rose was solid
What held was shared
We were not removed
Hands stay raw
Walls stay rough
The work is not complete
But we are aligned
Still in place
Still bearing weight
We remain
