Memories In a War
Machine guns spit fire on an urban slum,
and voices cry out in an unknown tongue.
Grenade launch –
“Take cover!”
“Get down!”
As blind as a bat, this Baghdad night.
A child’s scream, from the blackness,
gnaws at my ear,
and a table was set –
four candles on a birthday cake –
a camera freezes the moment.
“Wake up soldier!”
“This is what we were made for!”
“Don’t you go to sleep on us now!”
Machine guns spit fire on an urban slum,
and darkness disguises the hostiles,
and a child screams again,
and again ….
And again!
Chocolate paints her pink cheek brown.
“In coming!”
Baghdad bright with fireflies.
“Let’s bring the heat to these camel jockeys!”
The merry-go-round spins my head in a daze ….
So beautiful, her eyes like her grandmother’s gaze.
“Wake up soldier!”
“Stay focus son”
I wake up to see Baghdad ablaze.
Copyright © Earle Brown | Year Posted 2010
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