There is a question, one long ago
If a tree falls and nobody is around, did the tree still make a sound?
Did it still fall to the ground?
I did not know him, yet I knew everything of him
He never wanted to fight for the cause
But he did anyway
He had never seen land so barren and cold,
He had never even been so far from home
I think he figured it was cold because of them
Suking life dry from the land
He saw the stars fall because of them-
He was told to shoot for the stars,
Kill them with his own bare hands
Even if they had beating hearts
And colored bands
Warmth ran from his body, running from the muzzle of the gun which had stolen it
He looked up from the ground, bright light flashing in his eyes, blinding him
He did not see the stars staring back
The ringing in his ears so loud that he cannot hear
Yet still his mind wanders and he wonders
“It must be Heaven coming for me. The heavens must be falling.”
But the heavens wouldn’t fall for a Captain like him.
Life was jumping from his throat, words unspoken
Everything still ringing, vision starts spinning
Yet he’s still thinking,
“The world is falling. The world must be falling.”
He smells metal- that of artillery or blood,
He knows this must be done,
“The Red is dancing! Red like wine!”
Red like the blood that had been stolen.
Hooked wires held him tight
He looks up to the sky, and I find I can’t meet his eyes
He thinks it’s beautiful; the stars watching him
He thinks it’s beautiful; the snow covering him
He thinks they shine for him, in some way-
That mutual knowing of life of some form.
Yet, when he looks up to the black sky,
He sees not stars nor snow
But he sees magnesium shells whispering down,
“The stars are falling….the stars are falling.”
He sees ashes drifting from up high,
“The snow is falling….the snow is falling.”
And even though his body has long hit the ground,
In his mind,
He’s still falling.
Perhaps that is why even as he looks up into the peering eyes of the inky black sky,
With his burning stars and wisps of snow,
With speckles of red and the distant sound of sorrow,
All he can seem to understand and know
Is that the world-his world- is collapsing before his eyes
He died for a cause he wanted to deny, and only will I see that
All they will see is a monster with a gun,
Not a horrified boy with a soul and a still-beating heart.
They only see the blood on his hands, not the tears in his eyes
He fought without reason or belief
And died without it too
If not even a tree witnessed them die, they’ll say they didn’t
With no witness, it’s just a figment
A person reduced to land
Kids to soldiers, no longer man
Shuffle words and rifles, hand in hand,
Taught to execute commands and push forwards
Please ignore the kid-now-soldier with a gun, muzzle over your shoulder
Snow, or ashes, covered his unblinking eyes
And still breathing lungs, he had already died
But everyone was too busy looking down at their feet
To look up and ask
“What did the stars see?”
Ashlyn Mok
Grade: 10 / Sec. IV
Bev Facey Community High School
Sherwood Park, AB
“ The free-verse poem “What did the stars see?” analyzes and speaks up on the issue and surrounding complications of how forces often perceive those fighting at war which are often ignored and dismissed due to the nationality of soldiers. When on the topic of war people often automatically form varying sides depending on their point of view, geographical location and relationship to the forces at war, generalized as a “good” and “bad” sides or “right” and “wrong” sides. However, the reality for those fighting is that oftentimes, they take the blunt for the actions committed, when really, their viewpoint and “side” is not directed or controlled by them. The following parted lines make an example of this: He was told to shoot for the stars, Kill them with his own bare hands Even if they had beating hearts And colored bands This makes reference to the Star of David and the genocide of Jewish people committed by those fighting under Nazi Germany. However, the previous lines of the poem pose a setting and an underlying feeling of sympathy, noting that the soldier himself- in this case, fighting for the Nazi’s- didn’t bare the choice. At the same time, we witness the generalization of “him/he”, otherwise depicted as a soldier of unknown origin, falling into a delusional state of destruction around him as he dies, noting that he does not quite seem to deem this as the doing of either side. In his dying state, he believes to see snow and stars falling, knowing in some sense that he is dying, near the end he realizes that it is far more severe than that in a place of war. The “magnesium shells whispering down,” which looked like stars is actually a true remark of soldiers fighting in both Ukraine and Russia, when artillery is used Russian forces have a saying of “Звезды падают” (“Stars falling”/”Stars are falling”) to refer to incoming fire of missiles. In the end, it continues to return to the perspective of something- otherwise the eyes of the sky- being the only one to truly have known and seen how the soldier felt, knowing that “he died for a cause he wanted to deny” and “all they will see is a monster with a gun, not a horrified boy with a soul and still-beating heart.” Despite this knowledge, none of this matters as the poem returns to the starting reference to the common quantum physics question of “The Falling Tree”: rather than a human being dying, the soldier is reduced to land. With no witness of the fear and reluctance, many will simply state that there are “good” and “bad” sides whereas the reality of the situation is that there are good and bad governments and wrong and right decisions, generalizing a whole country to one value is never correct. Can you blame a person for a decision if they had never been taught it was wrong by preset, learned values? Can you blame a person for a decision that wasn’t decided by them, given no choice but to comply or face the consequences?”
Bio
Ashlyn Mok is a grade 10 student from Alberta. She grew up with an interest in understanding the way the world turned. She always has a lot of questions like “where do thoughts come from,” and so on. Most of her writing is philosophical or challenges perspective.