Child Soldiering Poem

Our hopes are worn,

Out with pain, of crimes committed against us

Facing death, rape, torture and slavery

What hope do we have?

Like animals we are hunted, our homes are destroyed,

Parents, brother, sisters killed.

Where then is our home?

John, my dear friend, I do recall,

Was chopped to death as we watched,

For his crime was being weak, tired and could not walk.

There is no hope in our future.

To the community we have become enemies,

We are being isolated, rejected, ignored,

By our brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers,

Meanwhile rebels, murderers and robbers,

Have become our names.

Daily our hope withers thereby.

Our children born in captivity,

Where the crime scars,

That we thought would vanish,

When we return back home,

Are not excepted in the community,

By our people, then where should we belong?

Or should we end our lives by going back to the bush

Because we see no hope.

Dear nation, the international community,

Parents, brothers, sisters,

Let us wake up,

And we struggle for peace together,

For the new generation.

And to stop recruiting children,

In armed forces

By Lucy from Uganda