Giant red double doors open wide,
allowing juvenile soldiers from every direction
to storm onto their battle zone.

Loud obnoxious screams drift though the air.
The youthful soldiers raise their hands,
cock back their thumb ,
and point their small index finger
towards the enemy, pretending that they have a weapon,
pretending they are firing real bullets.

They feel the true emotion of being at war.
Their mouths construct sounds
to create thunderous “bangs”
while falling back to show deafening “explosions”.

A football flies through the air
as if it were a grenade being thrown.
When hit, the young fighters perform a phony death,
imagining they were shot down.
The children then lay on the field of battle
waiting for someone to rescue them.

The bell rings, echoing like a bugle call.

The soldiers rise from their dugouts
and run together into the dome,
laughing and shouting about their mid day battle
not realizing the real the effects of war.


Children think it’s just a game.
A game of fun.
A game of escape.

But, in reality,
it’s burning buildings,
roadside bombs,
and death.

Those who lay in the field of battle,
find little fun.
Those who fall back,
may never rise again.
Those who truly are at WAR
risk their lives.

For those men and women,
their days are not like ours,
their days are numbered.