It takes no time at all to see the truth As we sit down to dinner with the television on. We watch the suffering, the bleeding, the loss. Children that we know in our hearts are gone, We hear of the charities created to help them To .

2. War is all some children have seen Pain a fact of life Misery a constant Watching love ones come and go Die before the beast they too well know They think this barbarity normal Guns ... dust ... noise as usual Scenes heartbreaking Playing in a bombed out building Quivering atop the remains of civilization These precious little ones Play somber games of war In the streets Among rubble once their home In paddies amid danger On sand dunes Rife with uncertainty Filled with deepening despair. Will they adjust to stay alive Their holocaust survive? Children of War by Gary Jacobson & Patrice Bennett

3. Children of War Children sway in war's voracious wind like reeds Their very childhood bleeds Singing songs of annihilation malignant desolation Blowing in wavering wind like a rhyme Born in the wrong place, at the wrong time Doomed wherever winds may blow to follow Their pestilent lives hollow Inconsequential Illogical! O, the future's in our children These precious little ones Who know too well The hard edge of death Searing pain. What will they grow up to be When all around them is hatred Unpropitious violence? These imposters Should not with children dwell.

4. Children of War So big So innocent So full of hurt Where there should be delight Stagnant emptiness Their vacant faces Gazing with blank stares Unfathomable terrors surrounding them Horrors abounding in their grown-up world Look deep into children's souls As they look back in wide-eyed devastation Their world falling down around them Devastation all they know. What does their future hold? What lessons will they learn? How can they know love With hatred surging around them so strong? Will they die young never tasting the fruits of life? Children of War

5. O what terror rests upon their tiny souls Eats at their hearts Aches in their bellies Tests their very being When they see loved ones killed Mother, father, brother ... gone Watching friends die in pools of blood Their caretakers silenced They see life as just surviving Without the essence of being. What is their purpose? To witness the slaughter From atop the rubble Of a bombed out building Tiny nostrils clogged With pungent gun powder The dust of destruction? Will they grow up but to repeat Scenes they've seen Horrors they've witnessed? Children of War

6. Will their futures Peering through barbed wire Fence them out Screen them from the world by hunger Desperation Growing fear Filled with hatred Destined revenge to wreak Scores to pay back Vengeance to atone. Or will the children, sick of hatred... Seek peace! Peace? Will they ever see it's face? Will they ever know It's sweet embrace? Will they ever feel The comforting of peaceful balm Hear its soothing calm To relax in the arms of peace. Children of War

7. Will children even be alive To watch war rumbling by To see it To grow up with it To live ... to love Make their place in it? Will children make a difference Become killers, or wise sages Be leaders of men for good Or evil? Will a childs sweet life be nipped in the bud Before life has really begun Without ever having dreams Much less, having dreams fulfilled Never to know tomorrow's treasures? Will they be able to see Through fogbound nightmares Beyond the haunting mist of terrors? Do children feel the swirling hatred Or numbly take it in? Children of War

8. How can children live in a place Molten in humanity's disgrace? Here, where fear replaces love The only thing showering down from above Children feel not blessings But tears in their eyes swelling Born in a world of hating Pain replacing tenderness Memories made by shock and awe Killing is the law. Will they just be one more of the tragic lost Gobbled up Swallowed by the voracious maw Of the ogre War's bestial carnivore... Their only childhood friend? Who surrounds their days What toys ... what joys ... what fears? What apprehensions fill young lives Where childhood monsters are real? Children of War

9. What if children judged us With much to say about injustice About being forced to grow up too quick About daddy's to war gone away Horrors seen every day Their introduction to death Before they even started to live? Which does a child understand more The man preaching of moral imperative, Or the gun in his hand? Do children fear the gun ... or embrace it Do children just not comprehend it? O, I would take up the little children If I could Grasp tiny hands in mine Clutch them to my breast Protect them Shield them from this world of harms Stem hurtful tears Kiss tear-streaked cheeks. Children of War Barely just a child of six out living on the streets half starved, nearly naked no shoes upon her feet Hiding in the shadows always cold and tired waiting there until she hears no more shots are fired Just another orphan…….

10. I would hug those who cruel war shackle Those whose terrible suffering too often War's cruel quest ignores. I would love them ... comfort them Show them a better place... O, that I could carry them to safety Illuminate that great and sacred place Where children live happy Fulfilled lives In a golden palace... But where, God? Where? Open up your arms, God Here they come... Children caught in tempest and whirlwind Anguished in a swirl of hate Running from real life bogeymen No hope for them in this war With no place for them Hate wreaking violence all around them Killing all they love ... forever! Children of War

11. I wonder if baby Jesus were born in time of war Would he understand? Would the plight of the children Bring tears to His eyes? Would he live long enough To plant the hope of the world? Could he save man From those embittered Will He show the better way Share His love for us all ... teach us to forgive? Children of War

12. We send our love very far, and it's all for a thing called war. We say we can defend, what will someday be the end. We say we fight, for what is right. We say our people are protected, but it's more like neglected. Our children cry, when parents die. We teach children so much hate, then what is to be there fate. Does our government really care, about what is fair, do they lay there at night, and wonder if there family is alright? ? Children of War

13. Do they cry, when love ones die? We are a mess, because we can't settle for less. We are put here to learn to be out best, but life is only a big test. The next time we go to war or a fight, look at who really is seeing our might, We should take into consideration, of what will be the next generation. What is to be there fate, if all we teach them is hate, from what we only create. We need to stop and wonder, what our children ponder, when they look back at history, we can only hope they don't see war as a victory! Children of War

14. The Innocents victim of the war

15. “ Please do our best to tell the world what is happening to us, to the children.” Rodolfo C.de Sousa Vicente