I wish I was elsewhere

Oleg Volk

I wish I was else-when
Than after the Patriot Act
In a lonely final stand

The night was like any other
My wife and son were in bed
When I awoke from slumber
And walked barefoot to the den

I didn't turn on any lights
Because the house was mine
I knew every turn and crevice
Could move like a cat in the dark

I wish I was elsewhere
I wish I was else-when
Than remembering the moments
After the door was rammed

I hear glass break upstairs
And then concussion grenades
Lit up the bedrooms above me
With roar fit to wake the dead

My wife and I had assumed
That intruders were just a gang
For we'd never done anything
To merit this pre-dawn raid

My wife and son tried to fight
The ninjas behind bright lights
But they were alone and stunned
I heard rattle of MP-fives

I wish I was elsewhere
I wish I was else-when
And not in my ruined home
With my family freshly dead

I thought to my self: "I am dreaming"
This gang just couldn't be Feds
But they acted just as one would expect
Shooting women and children dead

They hadn't found me yet
As I wasn't asleep in bed
My deer rifle was close by
What I wanted to say, it said

I retreated and so did they
Watching me from the outside
From the basement I still could tell
That they set my house on fire

In the choking smoke, I could just wait
Barefoot on cement basement floor
I wanted to take just one more of them
On my journey to the Beyond

I wish I was elsewhere
I wish I was else-when
Instead of this cold basement
At bay like a cornered rat

One more coal-scuttle helmet
Came up above barricade
And though my hands were shaky
I connected the one shot I made

The heat got beyond enduring
But the smoke, it got me first
And the house became a pyre
For me and two other corpses

The newspapers ran the story
That a three-person terrorist cell
Were taken down in pre-dawn hours
And that two brave policemen fell

I wish I was elsewhere
I wish I was else-when
Perhaps in the Sherwood Forest
With like-minded armed men