A Dream Called Erelah

I awake from a distant dream.... Thinking of all I'd seen Remembering what was in my mind's eye Such sad, sad thoughts of a time gone by I remember the heat of the desert and the dangers of camouflage men of small villages.......and the people within I recall a child.......I can still see her smile Black was her hair, her hands they were oh so small I can still see her face.........I remember it all Erelah, yes that was her name and ever since I met her my life's not been the same She's come to our station almost everyday coming for her hunger, always to play running round and round, hiding from us all I still can hear her laughter........ I remember it all She was such a small girl, born into this ruthless world A world where men prey upon men, and life is discarded like sand to the wind Sunlight and shadow One illuminates the other falls As the days become weeks, my distant home calls............ Messages of distress come over the wire they speak of death, fire of a small village, of evil men who rape, murder, and pillage Cloaked with the tools of Azreal, the LZ erupts Awash in wind and sand, the subdued helo lifts us in the air Nap-of-the-earth quickly, mountains, valleys pass by fast Distant souls burning, we ascend upon the village at last Pyre smoke engulfs the senses, swirling around and around Helos hover above, as we swiftly descend to the ground The toils of evil men are revealed in the dawn's light The departed are scattered about as we desperately scour for life From one burnt out structure to another We find nothing but hopelessness and despair The dead and the dying, only Iblis has been here I recognize a familiar door, one I have passed through many times before Reluctantly I peer in, and to my sadness I see Little Erelah laying by her mother, still deep in a dream But from this dream she'll not awake, nor shall she ever play For her innocence and life were taken, both taken on this day Never to learn to read, never to learn to write Never to run and sing again, due to man's mindless strife I promised to protect the children ever since that day And always defend them against man's evil ways And never, ever forget her That angel from above, or her simple message LOVE......... To me she was a moment of Spring, in a lifetime of endless Winter She is but a dream..........