Come inside, it’s getting dark

Mother said minutes before supper

Fish and fresh milk in dipper

Toy soldiers, I shoved into sack

We gathered round the table

Father said grace and blessed the food

Mother said milk was as costly as sable

George enlisted for the common good

Father tuned the TV for the news

Headlines are poverty, war and abuse

Ravaged lands like the moon’s craters

The war, father said will break us

Off to bed I went too soon

Mother came in to say prayers

Kissed me G’night and wrapped in layers

That night I slept with one eye open

The guns came at first light

Bullets rained like unholy fire

Mother screamed run, don’t forget

Father died strung on a wire

Rat a tat, rat a tat

The rapid fire staccato beat

Played to a universal song

Incites attention to the royal gong

Buried in the ground

Too numb to run

I listened around

For the silence of the guns.

- Charis