The ones who return

Long before she noticed the building, she noticed the storks.

circling in the sky.

Every spring,
returning to these ancient walls,
as if nothing had changed.

Centuries of silence.
Below them the El Baadi.

Once built as a symbol of power.
Today, a place of silence.

It made her wonder which of the two would be remembered longest.

The palace…
built to impress.
Where power slowly faded..

Or the home
of the storks,
nesting as far back as memory goes
on its massive walls.

Birds that quietly keep returning home.
Creatures that never cared about power in the first place.

She realised that was the reason why she always found herself returning there.

Not because of what this palace once was.
But because of what it had become.