To the Child who Was taken to the War

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To the Child who was taken to the war​

While you were singing
that Malbrook was gone to war,
you were taken to war, too
against all suffering and all pain.

Wishing to know why
the Little Tin Soldier
was lacking a leg
and if he might ride
on the Horse of Seven Colors,
your infancy of abandoned puppy
was taken to war.

And it was when you were imagining
the Wizard of Oz would give you
the mansion where your lost binnacle was,
at the end of your transhumant crossing.

And you had for toys weapons,
paraphernalia, and hostile gadgetry
until you discovered
that you were not playing war.

And such as someone did to Malbrook
they killed the naivety of your fantasies
and your macro-universe of illusions
in the abominable world of war.

And they did not allow
that your Fairy Godmother
could lend one of your restless legs
to the Little Tin Soldier
mutilated by the road mines.

Farewell, our little Malbrook,
new victim of these absurd conflicts.
Farewell, ignored hero
in the common grave of oblivion…

May your innocent soul could send
the placidity of peace
to the owners of these wars.


Ulpiano