The Life of a Child Soldier

When I looked out to the world today all I could see

Was violence and wars but none that affected me

Then I started to realizes all the possibilities

For me to be the change, to set others free

It didn’t take long until I concluded

That all of our morals and thoughts were polluted

With apathy and lack of responsibility

Instead of promoting peace we enforce military capability

As I opened the paper little faces staring back

They are child soldiers, their village just attacked

The rebels came forward and snatched them up quick

They didn’t stand a chance in all the panic

Their parents were killed, they were left all alone

Taken away from all that they had ever known

And quickly replaced with machetes and guns

Now the killers became innocent daughters and sons

Then hyped up on a lethal injection

The children were sent out with no objection

To act as the rebels machines and protection

Twisted are their morals and sense of perception

Their sense of direction is out of sight

There is no one there to tell them it’ll be alright

So they are forced to fight

This is not right

How can we watch this and not feel contrite?

Please won’t someone save them from this endless night?

Children should be in schools, not defending out of fright

This displacement of moral order is making me sick

When wrongdoers are not prosecuted because of fear to contradict

So other countries can save their own and stay out of conflict

But by doing nothing are we not the true convict?

By staying back to watch the pain they inflict

Sucking out the life of children like snakes constrict

Their prey

Oh I pray

That one day

We can find a solution to this disarray

Because I can’t stand standing by the sidelines

I won’t be witness to these endless hate crimes

When children are thought to be more effective than land mines

Because they have young minds

Because they are easily manipulated

They can be programmed to act out of hatred

All along not knowing what they’re doing

Not registering all the violence they’re viewing

Not aware of the people that they are uprooting

Caught in the confusion of the screams and the shooting

STOP! Won’t someone please stop what’s going on?

Because it is so blatantly wrong

And I feel so helpless and lowly

That I live in a world that always seems to act too slowly

Where we find it easier to apologize

Rather than to save lives

Rather than to compromise

As long as we don’t succumb to our own demise

Filling others with hope and lies

No wonder it’s so easy to despise

The ones who ignore the pleads and cries

The ones who provide the killers with supplies

Betrayal through a false guise

Feeling no guilt for our enemy ties

Just as long as not one of ours dies

We’ll succeed if we don’t have to look them in the eyes

And own up for what didn’t do

By taking an objective view

We fail to see the truth enough

To fathom reality we find it tough

But out there things are rough

it’s about time that we call their bluff

And show the ones who inspire fear that it will not be tolerated

That we will not let our young citizens of tomorrow be jaded

By these wars they’ve created

By the futures they’ve blockaded

By the dignity they have raided

Places they’ve invaded

The children they’ve degraded

Jovial memories now have faded

For these youth left so long unaided

It is our turn to stand

It is time that we demand

That they be sent into remand

Rescue the youth from their bloody command

And take in ours a little hand

In hopes that we can help them understand

That they have the right to a better life

That they should be free of anxiety and strife

That they are people not means of a war

That we refuse to further ignore

That now is the time to open a new door

Turn over a new leaf, be a child as before

So that we not involved are partners in a new wave

Of rehabilitating the children that we save

From those soldiers who deprave

Help the children to be brave

For it is our duty

To restore the beauty

Of childhood simplicity

To shed away complicity

To disable the young militias, put an end to all this violence

Child soldiers are a reality-it’s time to break the silence!