Sumbal Shehzadi The Terror of War
The smoke engulfed me Each breath burned
As if something or somebody was strangling me
Then all the sudden I felt it, the slime was on me
The jellied gasoline coating my body and buried through my skin and muscle down to the bone. As if my whole body was pressing onto a hot stove
My clothes burned away in the flames
At that moment only one thing was going though my mind Run! Run as fast as you can!
There I was a terrified nine-year old girl
Running down a South Vietnamese country road
Fighting to save my life

Run! The word covering my mind
To escape the smoke that engorged me
So that smoke doesn't swallow me like a monster tracking its prey
As I ran I deduced what horrible person could do such a thing.
While running I could see the sheared skin dangle from my body
I ran, so it does not burn any other part of my body I ran until pain and thirst restrained me When I stopped, a man came to my assistance.
He pored water on my burns,
But the steam only cooked them further
In the pain, I lost consciousness.

They were not all that bad
One of them carried me to the hospital
Where I spent the next 14 months of my life
I should be going to school
But bandaged in a hospital
What was my crime?
Playing with my siblings? Wanting an education?
Please tell me what I did wrong
17 surgeries later, as my eyes opened
The doctors said that my sister had come