| Monstrous
Abuse (To Kofi Annan)
The
proliferation
of brutal civil wars,
with the compulsory recruitment
of children for combat
has added another abuse
to the endless catalog of abuse
that we devise for our children.
Thousands and thousands of children
are forced to go into battle
after first learning the lessons
of terror and rule of the gun.
They are victims and victimizers,
kidnapped, drugged, forced to kill their families
so they cannot return home.
The girls are abducted with them
and used as sex slaves.
Governments or guerrillas,
equally without shame,
violate the covenant
to preserve our young.
Demobilization
lets an adult soldier
go back to civilian life.
Child soldiers,
robbed of family and education
know no other life
and have been abandoned
by the community of man.
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