“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16


If God loved the world so much as to give us His son,
should we send our sons
to die for our world?

Teenagers too young to crack open a can of liquid courage
become men as their controllers are replaced by guns.
This is no game. There is no reset button to undo
Corporal Matthew’s body crumpled up like an abandoned doll.
What used to be Major Luke morphs into a pair of dog tags.
You can’t put this on pause.
Don’t doubt it, Private Simon, this is real.
Your brother’s face just got in a fight with lead and lost.
No respawns for Sergeant Marks.
His game ended two levels away from headquarters.
Land mine put him to sleep. No more nightmares
of the giver of life, John the Medic,
erased by a booby-trapped toddler.
An explosion that tore open the curtain of night
and exposed the innocence and youth in their faces.
Let’s give them a show.