Yesterday I could play with toys,
Today I saw two dead boys
Torn apart,
Like my teddy bear,
And his broken heart.
Yesterday I could play
with my friends outside,
Never thinking, what if,
I had to struggle to survive.
Last night I slept
on a cold floor
in an underground train station,
Weeping echoed, laughter missing,
as our country’s neighbor
Rains bombs down on our nation.
Suddenly, I’m afraid –
I have to hide to stay alive,
No playing games anymore.
Today’s game of hide and seek is not a game, it’s real,
There is no one I could share with,
To tell them
All the things I feel,
Because,
I am still alive while so many have died or worse,
So many bodies have been left without
The honor of kind words,
In a poem or prayer or verse.
Is it possible for a child,
To grow old in so brief a time,
These eyes can’t unsee, the visions can’t be erased, no one can restore
The innocent childhood once I held, in my arms as mine.
Like my charred, armless teddy bear,
I lost my warm bed, the safety of my family, my home,
But I cling to what remains of him,
What little is left to call my own.