{"id":91666,"date":"2017-05-15T12:01:20","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T11:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=91666"},"modified":"2017-05-11T20:11:20","modified_gmt":"2017-05-11T19:11:20","slug":"lament-of-the-child-soldier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/05\/lament-of-the-child-soldier\/","title":{"rendered":"Lament of the Child Soldier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you imagine pointing a gun at a child? Let alone forcing a child at gun point to lead killers to raid his home? Sad but true for captured child soldiers in Northern Uganda. A working trip to the region in 2004 tore from me these words, as I tried to put myself in the child’s bare feet.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the barrel of my gun is the heart of a mother
\nand in my heart, like a distant shadow
\nmy yearning for childhood. Am I child? I do not know.
\nI think I left that journey many years ago.<\/p>\n

Or is it only days since I was torn, in screaming darkness,
\nfrom my mother’s arms,
\nfrom sun-drenched corn and cattle song;
\nto the seductive power of the gun?<\/p>\n

What am I now, as in the dark I
\nlead the killers to my village?
\nAm I child? Man? Beast?
\nI no longer know.<\/p>\n

What to think, to feel? I no longer know.
\nIn the barrel of my gun is the heart of a mother
\nand in my heart, like a distant shadow
\nmy yearning for love.<\/p>\n

Which is stronger: the shadow in my heart?
\nOr the fear of my captors?
\nMy trigger finger hovers.
\n__________________________________________<\/p>\n

EvelynVoigt was born a German prisoner of war in what is now Zimbabwe. As a child in Africa, she alternated between running free on an isolated tea and coffee farm and submitting to Dickensian, British-style boarding schools also in Africa. Penning for peace is her passion and she received the Order of the Queen\u2019s Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002. She has performed in Canada and abroad and has authored\u00a0<\/em>Flying Snakes and Green Turtles, Tanzania Up Close\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>Letters from Helga. She currently volunteers toward the profession-wide accreditation of peace professionals through the Civilian Peace Service Canada www.civilianpeaceservice.ca<\/a>\u00a0and helps to raise funds for the Fox NGO through www.mufindiorphans.ca<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you imagine pointing a gun at a child? Let alone forcing a child at gun point to lead killers to raid his home? Sad but true for captured child soldiers in Northern Uganda. A working trip to the region in 2004 tore from me these words, as I tried to put myself in the child’s bare feet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}