When Silence Wept

"Tainted Youth"

Here lie the shadows of children lost,
Whose innocence was burned, at terrible cost.
They never grew to taste the sun,
Their lives undone before begun.

Some were shattered by cruel hands,
Abused, betrayed in cursed lands.
Their laughter silenced, stolen breath,
Led down dark corridors to death.

Others marched with guns too young,
Forced to hear the battle's tongue.
Their fragile bones bore war's command,
Bloodied children, forgotten sand.

Soft hands, once reaching toward the light,
Now grip the ghosts of endless night.
Their dreams were broken, torn apart,
By wicked men with wicked hearts.

A body that never knew a day
Where love was real, or joy could stay.
Instead, they met the monsters' grin,
And learned too young of deadly sin.

In distant fields or shattered homes,
They wandered dark, forever alone.
No comfort came, no justice found,
Their childhood buried deep in the ground.

We mourn the voices turned to dust,
The fragile souls who had to trust
In twisted hearts that feasted cold
On tender youth, on lives not old.

For those who died before their time,
Who lived through horror, steeped in crime,
No songs will lift them, none will sing,
The world has failed them, everything.

The innocent are lost to flame,
Tainted youth, without a name.
And though the earth may hide their cries,
Their grief still burns beneath our skies.