Youth – a poem by Avery Friend

Written on Good Friday, April 14, 2006

Youth
 
 
seven is too young to hear
that daddy won’t come home
years go by but still can’t fill
the time you spent alone
 
fourteen is too young to care
about saving innocent lives
to campaign hard to stop a war
based on naught but lies
 
twenty is too young to fight
a battle that’s not ours
while government officials hide
like god-forsaken cowards
 
fifty is too young to bear
the weight of wooden crosses
for those collapsed along the road
under their heavy losses
 
one hundred is too young to wake
from nightmares of the past
no matter how many years go by
these scars will always last
 
one thousand lifetimes is too few
to understand the pain
a mother knows when she finds out
her child’s died in vain
 
I am too young to write these words
for all which we aspire
but my my pen never have rest
’till peace replaces fire