Saleh Ben Saleh

Child of War

I was never asked to choose a side,

it is to fate I must abide.

I am the child that war has aged,

I am the soul that time has caged.

 

I am the breeze,

lost in a storm,

I am that flower whose stem was torn.

I am a dream never achieved,

I am the innocence that war conceived.

 

Among the rubble I stand alone, my precious home a pile of stone.

Out in the cold without a cover,

I starve to death or may recover.

 

I am the cries and all the screams,

I am the victim of corrupt regimes.

In every battle or every war,

it is my blood they always draw.

 

I am a bird without his wings,

I am the child who lost his limbs.

Amidst the fear and all the dread,

I am a body amongst the dead.

 

To every general who wears a star,

I am the one who bears the scar.

I am the only voice of hope,

with all the horror I have to cope.

 

I am bewildered and feel ashamed,

to see serenity within the sane.

I am,

the child of war.