CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION

He was the first to aid the wounded,
the first to help the thirsty,
the first in the convoys that carried
what remained of humanity out of the ashes.

And then they imprisoned him—because he refused
to turn his hands into weapons.
Five years of captivity,
five years of blows,
five years of attempts
to break what was
most human within him.
To destroy his gentle spirit.

Let go the young men who
see a human being in the enemy, not a target—
not a target for the kill.
Let go those bearers of light from the darkness:
they already live in a world without drones,
without shells, without a contest of death.
They are the blossoms of a future civilization
that today’s world, blinded by the might and roar of weapons,
cannot even imagine.