I
A documentary about life in a
City far enough away to be like
A foreign planet, shows a boy’s
Sweet innocent face.
Speaking with defiant confidence he spits,
I want to be a martyr,
To go smiling, like the brothers
I’ve seen go before me,
Strapped up to his neck with enough
Mass destruction to get him where he’d
Been told he’d go,
He searched for infidels,
Saw children instead.
No words admonished - but
Looking through his own orphaned
Eyes, seeing children
Stopped him…
Soldiers and video -taping pedestrians
Watched him fall to his knees
Pleading to surrender.
II
How hard it must be
To live in the skin
Of a boy born into a world
Where the temptation of
Immortal grace’s promise
Is more seductive than a
Mind altering chemical;
Stopped him…
How easy it must be
To love the seduction
On the other side of reason,
To not think about
Loving another human body,
Or the soul sold.
Stopped him?
Seeing more lost children
Through his own orphaned eyes
Reminded him of what it was like
To be left alone and afraid
One too many times,
Stopped him?
Now hidden way
Behind the fences where
The enemy sleeps,
The boy no longer
Dreams of dying
But of living as a man,
Praying,
Allah is still smiling on him.
1/30/05
Linda Joy Burke
All Rights Reserved by Author-
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