The World According to a Child Soldier (III)

On my first day at school I learn to
say ‘yes’ to everything and to accept the dogs’ fight
for the best seat at the open-screen cinema,
although I have a V.I.P ticket.
 
I learn how the silence starts with a dry pen,
how it ends in a battlefield,
among abandoned bones.
 
I learn to agree with the history,
for it has the right to choose terror
over Vermeer’s ‘Girl in Hyacinth Blue’.
The options’ book has a few missing chapters but
my teacher says that acceptance, not hope,
is the best weapon against dreams.
 
I learn that I was not born a slave but
I became one. 

(first published in 'International Times' at www.internationaltimes.it)