Come With Us if You Want to Live…

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Image by kevindean via Flickr

I didn’t run

when the bomb hit our bunker

 

I didn’t run

when smoke filled the air

 

I didn’t run

when their soldiers stormed in

 

I didn’t run

when they dragged us out

into the hot sunlight

 

I didn’t run

when they said

“Join us or die!”

 

I didn’t run

when you walked over

and stood beside them

 

I didn’t cringe

when they called me

a filthy imperialist

an American dog

and you

joined in

 

I didn’t try to dodge

their blows and insults

as they fell upon me

 

I didn’t cry out

as they shoved me to the ground

jeering all the way

and you the loudest voice

 

How could you turn your back on me

so easily, so quickly

as if I had not fought beside you

all those days

hours

minutes

in the hot desert sand?

 

Later they would shoot you too

I could see it in their faces

undisguised hatred

unfaltering enmity

 

Later they would spare you no torture

offer you no mercy

for a coward is despised most of all

 

My only last thoughts

as the barrels of their dusty Kalashnikovs

were trained on me

in those last moments before death

were why didn’t we die together

as soldiers

die together

as brothers

sneering in the face of death

brave to the last drop of blood

but you

you had to go your way

and I had to go mine

 

O brother

why did you betray me?

*Note: This poem was written for and inspired by the Inspiration Monday prompt “Travelling by Balloon” from BeKindRewrite. I used the prompt titled “Come with us if you want to live” as my inspiration for this poem here. You can visit their blog by clicking on either of the two images:

              

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