growing up

she doesn’t know the world at all.

she is too young

to die an adult’s death,

and too old

to live a child’s life.

is an army

to protect

or to kill?

is it to protect her

from the world,

or to kill the world,

all for her?

it is deadly and lovely, and it’s

in the air she breathes and

in the water she drinks and

there is no escaping the weight of

their words

this world

the future.