I was born with fire in my heart and tragedy
in my blood

These bones are made of war

And my eyes are hurricanes

These hands are tornadoes and earthquakes

And my ribs are solid glass

My mouth is built of picket signs

My throat is made of frenzied battle cries

These teeth are titanium

I was created to be an unbreakable boy

An Achilles, a Hercules, an Icarus

But no matter how hard I fight

Sometimes fire goes out and blood drips

Bones break and wars end

And hurricanes die and earthquakes halt

Glass shatters and picket signs fall

Sometimes battle cries are stifled

And even titanium can warp

I have given and given and given

Until there is nothing left of me

God, why have You forsaken your
wolf-eyed boy?

Why have You given up your
silent-suffered boy?

I tore out my heartstrings because they started bleeding the blues

I was your sacrificial lamb on the altar
of their hate

A warrior for a cause I didn’t understand

A soldier for an army I didn’t want to join

A hero for a nation I’ve never loved

In the end, I am only a boy and I am so tired

Tired because I was never taught how to lay down arms

I was never taught how to be a soft thing

So I had to teach myself

My identity is an arrowhead leveled
at a dying world

A sniper rifle trained on the head
of a pitiable society

I was a weapon

A tool of destruction in the hands of a God who thought a flood could fix us

Please, God,

Let me go free

Make another hero

Mold another soldier

Create another warrior

Because my knees are shaking too hard
to hold me up

And these shoulders are much too weary
to carry the world