Mercenary Poem by Kevin Carney

I looked into your eyes…
All I saw was the vision of death.
You came upon me quietly from behind.
So silently, so full of stealth,
I almost didn’t know you were there.
You whispered to me in the murmur of the wind.
It took me by surprise, never could I believe…
You spelled out your offer; it was kind of a shock.
Such a temptation, a deal with destiny…
You looked at me and sized me up.
I didn’t really know what you had in mind.
You let me know that money could be had.
Always been poor, no education,
and too many night of hunger in my belly.
Travel was in my future, you said to me.
Temptation again,
never ever had been out of my hometown.
You promised me education, so special would it be.
All I had to do was to listen and learn and become cold to mankind.
You sent me on my way, to distant lands I’ve never seen.
I was taught to look away from the genocide in Rwanda…
I looked with indifference at the bombings in Northern Ireland…
Cold I had become to the rapes and pillaging of the Congo…
It was nothing to sit and witness the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo…
You taught me so well; I listened to you and took it all in.
Darfur was silence compared to them all.
Death I became used to the smell of it all around,
it should have made me sick.
So right you were, the money was good…
So easy it became for me, the work would never run out.
The pain and suffering, I couldn’t care less.
I did the world a service, race, religion or gender,
I would never discriminate.
I used the AK, the RPG and the bayonet;
they were the only friends I had….
Never could I have thought this could have been me.
No time for anything else, nor could I see…
What was in store for me…?
Too late I really began to understand.
It came to me as I lay on the cold ground; the pain was bad.
My shattered bones,
the blood of my life slowly draining away.
I looked to the heavens and asked Him to take me away…
Only to realize, so early on I had turned my back on Him.
All for the fame and fortune I wanted…
Becoming the instrument of the devil.