Heroes
And we were young, untried
voices, silent, contemplative,
crisp peaches, fresh summer songs
touch of a rose at dawn,
innocence, royalty effusing
each of us having a universe
in our hand like a marble
and they armed us and took us
to the borders; they bestowed death
unto our scopes with the accuracy
of surgeon and what could we do
with such instruments and with targets
standing at the edge of the plain
laughing and scolding us?
We started shooting against
anything moving with such a strange joy
that even now after all these years
I can’t explain
and having taught us how to kill
they euphemized us
by ultimately calling us heroes
Hellenic Canadian Literature 