Letter to a child soldier from Jiverly Wong
Sometimes it's better to take a life with you when you go
Return to the dust of the earth with some fertilizer to plant your roots forever
Unreachable
Beyond all judgment, all responsibility, all feeling
After the first shot
When the bullet began grinding pieces of his flesh in its teeth
I knew I couldn't watch,
Couldn't enjoy the moment as it unraveled before me
Each breath he struggled for was a ticking second on my watch
A plan playing strong before my eyes
Like a silent film, slow and colorless
You are my predecessor worlds away
Separated through time zones and ocean waves
You too have voices
That bang against the flesh of your ear drum
Like war songs
You too have some God dream braided into your mind
Like salvation never tasted as sweet as bile sinking between your teeth
Like a temple of crunching bones
To lay inside, to go home
You left an empty house to follow an emptier belly like I did
We both run to people that close their open arms to our faces
And inject our hopes with drugs to sedate our consciousness
A conspiracy theory unfolded triggers within my knuckles
And crushed the future within yours
They will look at us and brand us devils
Child, you are the truth lying in the shadows of an angel's wing
I am rambling the words they used as nails to pierce my palms and feet
But religion is for the weak
So tell them you have been bonded to real life
While they sip their blood diluted coffees
And drive their blood fueled cars
With their blood speckled diamonds shining
Blinding them to the truth
We get shot and pierced by those coins they throw behind
We suffocate in those sweaty wrinkled bills
The others will look down in sympathy
Call us crazy, branded and bruised
With the academic oozing from their perfected language
That sounds like the clink of prison walls grated closed
They cannot catch us as we run so fast
We trip into other lives
We shoot into other worlds
We divine intervention into their worth
We are soldiers
Fighting a war we did not create
Fighting for something more than government promised us
I hope you find salvation but know
Your cause is one I am a victim of too
So we must
Let the shots pound the lies into dust of the earth
Dead like we will be too
