In Whom Do I Trust

Me mate and me out on patrol eyes peeled for any unrest, scanning the roofs for sniper's bullets. A car cruises past thumping hearts till it speeds on by danger imagined. A rock - skirted for fear it's real, every step a threat. A typical day in Iraq. Then in a vision comes a woman in black, laden with goods fresh from the market. Weighed down she stumbles dropping her wares. Quick as a flash, unrehearsed my mate races - across the dusty road. I meet her look stomach churning something's not right something is wrong the body is old but the eyes are young. I scream GET B-A-C-K! as the water melon EXPLODES in his hand - into fragments of man - woman into pulp of flesh and bone. I rock myself to sleep that night full of questions full of doubt. TELL ME; how can I defend when I know not who to trust? TELL ME; how can I fight when I achieve no good? TELL ME; how can I fight in a war that's unjust? HOW can I kill a woman in cold blood? TELL ME; Anybody! Somebody, Answer me. For I do not know I just don't know anymore I just don't know. I was struck by a comment on a Radio 4 program, that, how can you trust when you are befriended one day and become the enemy the next. It instilled an image in my head - the darker side of imagination spoke and this poem was written.