Less Than A Small Child

"Play? There is no time to play. I am fighting a war,"
13-year-old Jabal, a soldier in Mozambique.

Rifles in the hands of children
with no time to play
who were stolen
from the city bus,
or a party, the streets, their churches,
or from their slaughtered families
killed by another 8-year old
no longer begging to be just a child.

Weapons of un-civil war,
bought for battle zones—
weighing less than a small child—
costing less than the price
of a chicken.

Rifles in the hands of hungry boys
fighting without food,
hungry for their own revenge
drugged by the anger of loss,
beaten by the belief
that life is a battleground
forced to live in fear,
fiercely alone
fighting someone else’s war.