In my first draft, I sought to relate the topic to modern circumstances -
when that didn't work out, an idea took root in my mind of writing the poem
from my perspective, from the perspective of an adolescent living in the
21st century, who has only words to understand and access history. Since we
are all children, we can only imagine the carnage caused by the crusades
and sympathize. However, the main focus in the poem is empathy - how a
child puts themselves in the shoes of another, and imagines towns long gone
under dust and smoke, romanticizing the past in a way that is in accordance
with the present. And then there are motifs which run up against each
other: how blood can be related to roses, which stands as the ultimate
symbol of love, and how war leads to introspection. Keeping all this in
mind, I wrote my poem.