i ask some on a summer day

and very old they are

"how was your distant childhood years?

to know, to see, i may?" 

"my life had been so drowned in fire

frightful and cruel it was

such tiny wishes we all desired

but never learned to have"

"god knows how many shots they fired

how many lives we lost

how many hands were cooled to frost

how many knots were tied"

"and though we were so young, so pure

it was us who they burned

and it was ours, the flesh they ate

the meals they served, the life they changed"

"your time, this time, the time we seeked

we spent our past in chains

but you, such youth and joy you miss

will not anymore be stained."

lila.