The broken ones

We are the lost ones, the shattered ones

The ones who have no power, no strength left

Who do not know any longer

How to put it all right again

We are the broken ones...

 

I lay my life down in the killing fields

Torn from the only family I have ever known

By the hard ones, the faceless ones

Who declare themselves Fathers

Who thrust a gun into my shaking hands and

Decree my innocence sacrificed

 

I lay my body down in the hot desert dust

Torn from the only home I have ever known

By the hard ones, the faceless ones

Who declare themselves Dictators

Who thrust their seed into my shaking core and

Decree my innocence surrendered

 

I lay my freedom down in the bullet-riddled streets

Torn from the only existence I have ever known

By the hard ones, the faceless ones

Who declare themselves Rulers

Who thrust my words and shaking voice into oblivion and

Decree my innocence forfeit

 

We beseech you 

Those who will come after us —

Struggle against the hard ones

The faceless ones

Bear witness in the killing fields

In the hot desert dust and

In the bullet-riddled streets

And by doing so

Help us become whole once more...

 

--Saskia Maddock

Canada