Collateral Damage
What happens to all those lives lost in war
Those blown to smithereens or shot and left
What happens to those back home who wonder
or to refugees leaving all behind who wander
What happens to the bodies found on the streets
and the nameless buried in mass unmarked graves
What will become of those who survive
battle after battle on the home front, never knowing
if this day or tomorrow or some future moment
will be their time to depart
And then, there are the children who will never be the same
Robbed of their childhood, scared for life
after seeing mortars and bombs blow up their homes
they huddle against their mothers hoping their train
will make it to the boarder, wondering if they will
ever see their fathers… there brothers… their neighbors
again following this living hell they are going through
The collateral damage of war goes on for generations
Some will choose to exit early while others will wake up
terrified, screaming from the nightmare of memories
attempting to make sense of it all in their dreams
Yet, generation after generation we continue to refuse
to turn swords into plowshares and live at peace
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Photo: Dwight L. Roth