Dear Editor:
My daughter, a 10th-grader at Monte Vista High School, wrote a poem for an English class. It gave me insight into the fact that perhaps our children get the severity of what is going on significantly more than they verbally express.
War
by Mariana Gerontides
War is never easy.
We tremble with fear, but our bravery shines through.
War is never safe.
We sacrifice our lives for a cause while fighting at the front line.
War is never humane.
For war is a cruel act of violence always resulting in pain.
War is never painless.
Combat usually ends in mass destruction of broken hearts and shattered bones.
War is physically draining.
Our legs refuse to move, our hands tremble, our bodies are a thin skin stretched painfully over repressed madness, over an almost irresistible, bursting roar.
But a bond is built among us men.
Fear passes through us when thinking about which one will be the first to join the heavens.
Even in deadly situations we are positioned at the front-line.
We conjure all our strength to fight hard through each day.
Only to wake up, and fight through more emotional and physical heartache.
War is never easy.
Diane Gerontides,
Danville
