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WAR | HUMANITY
Awake
A protest poem: How I found my voice through war
How long have I been sleeping? I ask
My skin crawls with shame
As I see you clearly for the first time
Lying side by side
It was the smell of burning flesh
Dust from rubble that choked my lungs awake
You say ‘don’t worry, just sleep,’ in all your ugly glory
Yet, I am awake for the very first time
How long have I been sleeping?
Shame crawls through the rivers of my veins
You say ‘it’s all for peace,’ but when awed by mephistopheles
To devour the world and tell me it’s time for dreams
It was the smell of rotting bodies that woke me
Cries of children robbed of another day
You tell me ‘never again,’ that we have every right as they
Yet the taste of metaI screams, this is not the way
How long have I been sleeping?
My restless body aches, hearing them suffocate
Breathing black smoke reminds me
I am awake
