WE are not numbers

When they wage war

they might forget that people are not numbers

to collect or keep like bones

to dehumanize

to take away

taking God's work in their hands

for things that God did not sign them up for

When they invade lands

they ignore war as the bigger enemy

starving people into nothingness

holding progress down

changing people’s lives in seconds

killing dreams shamelessly

war is the killer of hope

When We talk about war

We forget to keep the powerful accountable

while they do everything in their capacity

to take our jaws out

We

When I say We I mean civilians We

I mean us that stand in queues to vote We

We that are tirelessly lied to

surrendering to the developments that will be made

We that just want to be able to exist and

offer our best selves to ourselves and our families

We

War is a carrier like a virus

that takes away everything selfishly

like an angry sea that has not been tamed

like bottled-up pain

We the civilians the ones bombed and killed and massacred and burned into debris

We

Why do We have to be the bearer of the devil's actions?

Why do We do We do We have to be sacrificial goats?

The numbers so easily forgotten to be given away to be subtracted to be given new names

to forge dreams to be beggars of things that should be free

peace security a sense of home

We walk with memories of those that We buried and

those whose bodies We could not retrieve

and those who had just started new jobs new families

new optimisms new lives snatched away from everything that tasted like

belonging

We the poor the vulnerable the ones trying to knit days into night

they in their hunger crucify our thirst.