Troops Everywhere Poem by Dr. Ahmed Gumaa Siddiek

The troops are everywhere
Playing with fire
In the streets of my town
in the streets of Khartoum

They play the games with the guns,
They shoot at everyone
For mere fun

Machines on their shoulders
They can shoot you down, for no good reason
But to please their fellow soldiers
Happy to carry out all the orders,
and to disobey the law

They play the judge with grudge.
So, in a minute or two, they can decide on you
On your whole fate,
they do not need to wait,
for you to make your defence
They decide your case
To shoot you right down on the face
or break your leg or hand
or may kill you and send your body down,
in the dusty sand, the sand of your own town

The troops…
robbing, looting my town
plundering and thieving my town
shooting and killing, my town
And shouting with joy and victory
as if they are writing the new human history
With their guns

And when they sat down to rest,
at the end of the day,
when the kids are out to play,
They would think which school to shoot or rape
As they have raped the whole nation and made a hole,
In the flesh AND deeply in the soul