I was never asked to choose a side, it is to fate I must abide. I am the child that war has aged, I am the soul that time has caged.

I am the breeze, lost in a storm, I am that flower whose stem was torn. I am a dream never achieved, I am the innocence that war conceived.

Among the rubble I stand alone, my precious home a pile of stone. Out in the cold without a cover, I starve to death or may recover.

I am the cries and all the screams, I am the victim of corrupt regimes. In every battle or every war, it is my blood they always draw.

I am a bird without his wings, I am the child who lost his limbs. Amidst the fear and all the dread, I am a body amongst the dead.

To every general who wears a star, I am the one who bears the scar. I am the only voice of hope, with all the horror I have to cope.

I am bewildered and feel ashamed, to see serenity within the sane. I am, the child of war.

Saleh Ben Saleh