© 2026 River of Sighs Riffs. All rights reserved. This is an original composition. No part of this work may be reproduced, distributed, or used without express written permission Dawn broke like glass shattering across the horizon in bloody shards. Smoke and ash lingered among the wreckage the way shadows do clinging to darkness and broken souls. The boy carefully wiped the caked blood from his mother’s pale, cold face. Her wounds stopped bleeding hours ago, and he no longer heard her labored breath. Mama, Mama?- he held fingers that no longer squeezed back. -Where do I go now, Mama? The drones, cold and soulless, didn’t feel pain or know death. War carried no risk for them, only their victims on the ground. The enemy killed with calculated precision without ever seeing the terrified faces and wide-eyed panic of their targets. Death had become clinical-the battlefield observed on distant displays. The low, mechanical hum in the sky grew louder, but he didn’t run. Where could he go? He laid his head on his mother’s silent chest and closed his eyes. His dog whimpered and crawled toward him on shattered legs in one final protective act.
