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Oil and acrylic on canvas

size 140 x 70 cm

no frame

In the context of all the bad things that are happening today, I think of all those who have lost their homes, their families and their loved ones in the cruel war and I wish with all my heart that this would not be the reality, that everyone would have a place to go back to, a place to live and love and feel safe. 

Recruits 

With God, boys and children, we're enlisting today, we boys of twenty, of this sad morning, when the whole sky is a barracks, with broken windows, a wall cold, grey and black painted

We have no more heads on our shoulders, we have only briefcases on them, black briefcases - black coffins, our names on them in white trim, and in them we ourselves are buried, in clasped hands we hold our hearts, we know nothing of you any more, life of beautiful glass things, love with mother's hands.

Sad little girls, don't come to us, this is no funeral, we'll be back again, one night with all the stars. We dead soldiers, we'll come to you down this street, we'll bring you a bouquet from our wounds, a bouquet of red, a gift that bleeds on the breast. Take us in your arms, in your white beds, so that you may know, dear ones, where our silent body has opened for your lips with a wound, so that you may go deep into it on your wedding night.

Before the dawn, we shall conceive a new life under your heart, joyful little child.

Jiří Wolker, Básně (Poems by Jiri Wolker)