Too Soon A Soldier Poem by Julius Saidu

Our food is left undone
Our wheat un-thresh
Our heroes have gone to sleep
Our fathers are losing their sanity in the liquor store
We came just yester-years
We found history in tears
Our future in agony
And we now see our hope in the fields of graves

The battles are here, but our warriors are gone
War cries of our enemies are getting closer
We lift now our boredom
Swallow our fears
We take our fathers guns
We lift our flags, even as it heavies our young arms
Let's go fight their own battles
For where of a chick without its mother

Too soon a soldier
We did be now in our mother's comfort
Grazing in the fields of our fathers cattle
Waiting for African rains
Dancing in African moon light
But now we are raised where blood is water
And human flesh is meat
When our nation sinks in war
Our beds burn to ashes
We become child soldiers

-Julius Saidu-