A Single White Rose in the Rubble
Header Note
Contest: Rhythm and Rubble Poetry Contest
Prompt: A Single White Rose
Sponsor: Kerry Bernatchez
Poem Title: A Single White Rose in the Rubble
Form: Free Verse
Date of Submission: July 10, 2026
A Single White Rose in the Rubble
* single *
* white rose, *
* blooming in the *
* broken stone of a town *
* that fell apart in minutes. *
* The ground shook. Streets turned *
* to dust, like a desert swallowing *
* everything. Buildings fell, roads *
* split open. The noise of life, *
* of laughter—all buried. The *
* sky went red. Fog and *
* smoke rolled thick. *
* Whispers turned *
* to loss. *
* * *
|| Footsteps turned to silence.
|| Everything became dust.
|| But at the end of the cracked
|| street, something was still growing.
|| Small. Stubborn. And there,
|| barefoot in rubble, a little girl
|| in a white frock. She wasn’t crying.
|| She held a photo frame tight
|| to her chest. Her family smiling
|| back from the glass. No house left.
|| No voices left. Just her, and
|| the rose, and the quiet between
|| them. Purity didn’t leave.
|| It stayed. Right here, in the
|| middle of what was gone.
||
||
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