A Fool’s Paradise

• Jade Lo, Grade 10
• Poetry
• 2015

Clammy hands tightened around the gun,
Fingers trembling as he aimed,
Already too late for regrets,
It was now or never.

Their voices, echoing in his head,
Hypnotic drones drowning out his every doubt,
Shoot and kill,
A trivial sacrifice for their false promise of “friendship”.

The trigger was pulled,
The bombs were thrown.

He was forced to be insensitive,
Witnessing the eyes of the innocent lose their spark,
He pressed the button and breathed his last.

He was only 12.