The Troops

They should be out shooting
basketball hoops
Not their brothers
Or on their toes
Dancing hip hop
Not dodging bullets
They should be out swimming
Or just out chillin’

They are twelve and thirteen
If that
Some even eight or nine
Too young to die
Too young to take a life
Casually
But they must trade
Another’s life for their own

They are the youth
Of war-torn Africa
The unrepresented
At the United Nations
Because they are not children
According to UNICEF
Nor are they adults
By the guidelines of UNESCO,
UNIDO, UNDERATED
And UNWANTED

Those who are lucky
Fall into the ditches
A natural grave
The bullets taking away
Their meaningless lives
There is no birth certificate
In the Refugee Camp records
No death certificate
For they are querillas
No tomb for the unknown soldier

In history no one will know
That they even came thru’ here
For they were going nowhere
Anyway
Their simple dream
To live another day
To march stoically
To defend an unknown cause
For which their fathers before them
Died
For they are the troops!