October 24, 2030

The waves of hate wash over me,

Sonic waves of fire,

No escape over land or sea, 

The smoke rises higher. 

I saw my mother die today,

Her body in the mud.

All the streets are dusty and gray,

Tinted with reddish blood.

My baby sister hugs me tight,

Her tears fall on my cheek,

Shivering through the long dark night

We cannot, dare not, speak.

There be strangers beyond the wall,

So thirsty for our blood.

My sister holds her little doll,

Stained with blood, dust, and mud.

No water to wash, nor to drink,

So long since we’ve been fed,

My stomach heaves from the foul stink,

So many friends now dead.

Our father and mother now gone,

Every house filled with fears,

Every long night from dusk to dawn,

Bombs so loud in our ears

I know not who these soldiers are,

Or why they hate us so,

I wish, I wish I had a car, 

Or could fly like a crow.

To escape this horrible dream,

A dream that’s not a dream,

Hearing a shrill and dreadful scream,

The street, a scarlet stream.

There is a land beyond that wall,

People we’ve never seen,

I’m told that wall will never fall.

No one will intervene.

So alone in this vast prison,

The warden’s control all,

Angry resistance has risen.

How much more shall we crawl?

Many of my friends now lie dead,

So, to my own mother,

My heart is filled with fearful dread,

No mother, no father.

Fierce fire and smoke scar the sky 

When will the bombing cease? 

My sister and I don’t want to die.

All we wish for is peace.