Casualties

We’ve always been casualties,
Losses,
Fatalities,
Laid amidst shrapnel and bloody rags,
Souls laid in the street,

We were casualties of birth,
Unable to receive oblivion,
Thrust into the world,
Added to the unholy tally,
Another tick on the doomsday clock,

Now we are casualties of society,
We’re trapped within this artifice,
Cogs of a machine we didn’t design,
Engine oil taken right from the artery,
Advocates of our own exploitation,

Despite the light and healing,
The band-aids placed upon amputated limbs,
Boons that life begrudgingly gives,
That’s all we shall ever be,
Casualties.