All I knew about this man
Was that I killed him
His skin was smooth and
There were freckles scattered across his face
Like the constellations above
His fingers were small and delicate
And clean
But his body was sunken
With no muscle on his brittle bones
I looked
At the man I killed
Horrified and yet
Just numb
My eyes flickered to his fingers again
A wedding band in it’s ceremonious place
Polished perfectly
I closed my eyes with pain and imagined
His family
Round smiling faces
Children clamoring around
Screaming and laughing
Unaware of
The man I just killed
He was a scholar
I was sure
A math kid
Who enjoyed pondering equations
And relished the peace in the
Yes and No world of arithmetic
He didn’t ask to be here
To fight
And neither did I
Was that I killed him
His skin was smooth and
There were freckles scattered across his face
Like the constellations above
His fingers were small and delicate
And clean
But his body was sunken
With no muscle on his brittle bones
I looked
At the man I killed
Horrified and yet
Just numb
My eyes flickered to his fingers again
A wedding band in it’s ceremonious place
Polished perfectly
I closed my eyes with pain and imagined
His family
Round smiling faces
Children clamoring around
Screaming and laughing
Unaware of
The man I just killed
He was a scholar
I was sure
A math kid
Who enjoyed pondering equations
And relished the peace in the
Yes and No world of arithmetic
He didn’t ask to be here
To fight
And neither did I