• It all happened so fast.
    The sirens blaring, waking the city
    From its slumber. Then came
    The bombs, illuminating the night,
    Like hell's fireflies setting the horizon aflame.
    Gunfire echoed down through
    The streets, issuing screams
    From fleeing citizens. Blood curdling
    Shrieks of agony, fear and shock.
    Do you have any idea what it is,
    To feel that terror? To run for your life,
    Like hunted prey. To see first hand,
    The gleaming ecstasy in your predator's eyes
    As he murders your loved ones?
    I've been forced to sit here,
    And tell my story to you.
    You listen silently, that gleaming
    Black lensed eye reflecting my features.
    A picture is worth a thousand words.
    So what is this worth?
    None of these words will save
    Anyone who's fallen. This place
    A cold spick and span hell,
    Imprisons us, Systematical extermination,
    One by one - cruel and unjust.
    How can this be okay?
    Why do you just stare in silence?
    These men, these soldiers.
    Dressed in fine uniforms, handsome
    Young men of status. Men
    To admire, to look up to.
    Doing such blatant acts of carnage.
    My mind was once a canvas,
    Blank and pure and white.
    Now has been stained with dark
    Shades of black and hues of red.
    These great men, so innocent in
    The matter of the intricacies of the human soul.
    They remain a new canvas, unaware
    Of their damage. They could not
    Comprehend the suffering.
    They were bred and raised;
    The generation of the blind.
    Where blindness means, to be
    A man, of which no compassion shed,
    Is a man who shall uplift this
    Country's deep sins, and purge us
    Of impurity. So here I sit.
    A boy of sixteen, so once naive.
    So full of life and promise.
    Now I am but a fading soul,
    As my story falls on deaf ears.
    Do not weep for me, sweet lens
    For I am but a shadow
    Amongst great darkness.
    Never again to grace the light of day.