A Letter Arrives By Registered Mail Poem by Gert Strydom

A letter arrives by registered mail
and the getting of it costs nothing,
but the contents
leaves the mark of Cain.

From sixteen all boys are computerized
and when you leave school you are not spared
and get a call up instruction by telegram
and your way is marked off, determined and ready.

Like handcuffs locking for a time
the government has already decided for you
to get training and go to war
and from it no one escapes.

You are indoctrinated
and even chaplains tries to convert you to war
and tell you that you are the rod of God
rather than teaching you about the Lord.

The country is threatened by a total onslaught
with destruction from waiting communists
and you are taught to shoot and kill
and are chased around day and night.

Till you stand at the moment of truth
and enemies are people just like you
at the edge of death
and their lives are forever past

and everybody dies
and are ripped to pieces
young and old and people of another colour
and nobody escapes the destruction

and blood stays red and wet
en splashed into your soul
and the mark of Cain never comes off
and nothing can remove it.