A Dialogue Between An Army And Some Young People Poem by Obed dela Cruz

(There was an army which was composed of grown-ups (both men and women) . It was an army that was skillful in using swords, spears, bows, and arrows; it was an army where all members knew how to use their armors. They had enough knowledge on how to have combat with an enemy; they fit physically.

Now, this army engaged in a battle wherein their skills and armors they found that those were not enough. They were shocked because this battle where they engaged in never happened before. They could not make a strike, their arrows are not enough and their shields cannot shield them any longer… all that they know and have is not enough to win.

Then one day, they were swarmed by a large number of kids and youths (both boys and girls) . Both want to join the army but because the ages and physical attributes of these young people are not ideal and fit to join the army, that’s why they laughed… but the young people still insisted to join… they started a conversation)

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! What is your desire that you persist to join us? Are you underestimating the terms and conditions of joining this army?

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! Do you think the battlefield belongs only to you? Do you doubt the things we can share?

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! You do not yet know how to use the sword! You do not yet know how to use the shield! You do not yet know hot to use our weapons!

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! You cannot always put your trust to strike to the sword and protection to the shield! Weapons just made our world empty of the good natural things that the people in the past saw!

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! What battle skills can you offer to us? What kind of combats have you already learned?

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! We come without your expected battle skills and learned combats.

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! What then can you offer us?

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! You taught us to observe you and listen to your counsels. Why, is it not right for us to let you know our secrets? Is it bad for us to give our ideas? Do you consider it trouble and distraction if we will tell you what we know? Do you limit us?

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! Your experiences are not enough for us to listen to your wisdom and ideas. You have not seen the world!

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! Do you think that the world is still as it is when you first saw it? Do think age is the limitation? Do you think we can’t feel what is happening in the world right now? Look at you, you are shocked by our approaches and our actions because you use the psychology you’ve learned in the past and not the psychology that is applicable today!

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! But you are too young to join us!

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! LOOK TO US AS HUMAN BEINGS… you were like us before you joined the army… you have dreams… you have hopes… you have wills… you have desires… and all these things you fulfill now… CAN’T YOU LET US FULFILL OURS FOR THE BETTER OF THE WORLD AND THIS ARMY? O please test and base us not from our age. TRY US AND NOT OUR AGE.

ARMY: O innocent ones! O young people! Indeed the battle that we face changed, as well as the world. Indeed all of us are innocent of something. None of us can really define what a wise and genius person really is. So come and we’ll teach you of what we know and tell us what you think. Though our ages have a gap but still let us understand each other. IT IS BETTER THAT YOU ARE WITH US IN THIS BATTLE RATHER THAN BEING AGAINST US OR BEING SLAVES AND SOLDIERS OF OUR ENEMIES… thank you… thank you…

YOUNG PEOPLE: O great army! O our admired soldiers! We’ll listen to you more because you now decided to spare a time to teach and be with us. Business and pleasure you will give us for it! The sweetness of sacrifice let us understand so that the bitterness of the training we’ll not have. O yes, let us be one and understand each other… let’s not limit each other… MAKE US ONE OF YOU AND WE WILL BE WITH YOU… thank you… thank you…

(And so this army that the world thought as it is was changed and is now an army that never existed before. With victories shall they end every war because the possibility of winning has now been greater.)

(dedicated to my God, family, nation, and loved ones)

Copyright © 2010 by Obed Dela Cruz

(January 17,2010; Marikina City)

(The rights and ownership of this text belongs to Obed Dela Cruz. To use it in a proper manner, please email him at princeobed_dc@yahoo.com)