Early morning coffee
ventures...
Sweet melodies
drifting throughout
the place
coming from hidden
speakers...
the soft, golden
haze of
morning
outside the vast
wall of windows...
writing on an old
napkin,
reflecting
on dreams
from
the night before...
images flash
through
my mind...
the face of a
tyrant...
visions of children
running,
hiding...
but it is not
a vision
I'm seeing
from a
distance...
I am
running too...
hiding along with
children
in the dark...
and then
noises
&
yelling
then we
are taken.
I awake
to the sound
of an obnoxious
alarm clock
in a
semi-conscious
state
of confusion...
I've never dreamed
of Africa
before,
as much as my
days and thoughts
are [and have been
for years]
consumed
by these children...
why now?
and then
I am fully awake
& I come to
the realization:
these children
have nightmares
a hundred-fold
the intensity
of mine...
they have had terror
so instilled in
them
by rebel leaders...
the traumas
they have experienced
haunts them
night
&
day...
no child
should live
in fear
& further still,
not even be
able to
escape it
in their sleep...
May they soon
know a time
of peace...
where they sing
& dance
by day...
and dream
sweet dreams
by night
"We are the children who need peace,
are looking for peace,
with voices of peace..."
- former LRA child soldier
"However long the night,
the dawn will break."
- African proverb
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