There’s a crevice

Young kids are constantly falling into it

It’s been around longer than you and I

It envelope the minds of the young

They’re introduced at birth

They see it as their minds develop

It’s written across their face

They know how the streets work

Before they can even read

Even as they leave it behind it still haunts them

One movement can return them to it

They don’t know anything outside of it

They’ve seen it all by the age of 10

They know their sets hand signs before their ABC’s

They can point out the enemy faster than they can circle an answer

They’re bred for killing

You aren’t willingly put into this life

You’re  born into it

The only thing you can do is attempt to leave

But even that comes with its own troubles

You eventually grow into it

It becomes a part of you

You wouldn’t willingly throw yourself into the unknown

You need the push

And that push can come in so many forms

Yet even in its various shapes

That push may never come

You continue waiting

Holding for that push to come

The push that will throw you into the vast unknown

The land forbidden to you because a wall

A street

A name

An idea

A war that was started generations ago

You don’t even know the real reason

All you know is something you were told

All you know is that he wears a different color

So it’s you or him

There’s no other reasoning other then that

They’re just another body to add to you already vast count

The deaths you’ve caused could fill a whole graveyard

Yet for now they only fill the mournful heart of those that they loved

What will happen when that’s you

What will all those deaths mean

Will that color or set matter then

After time all you will be is a stain on the sidewalk

Your whole life spent following a meaningless color

All your “ brothers” won’t remember you

They’ll replace you once you’re gone

You don’t mean anything to them

You’re just another soldier they can replace

Just another mind they can sculpt from their own minds.