Wars Kill People...Don't They?
By Denzella
- 3763 reads
Wars Kill People…Don’t They? 320 words
To die for one’s country,
Is a beautiful and fitting thing.
They were words I once heard,
But it’s not a song I’m proud to sing.
My comrades should have been,
Allowed their three score and ten.
But they were cut down in their prime,
Boys who, overnight, became brave men.
Gilded names they leave as legacy,
But does that bring comfort to a wife?
Those young men lying where they fell,
The dead and dying; they had a right to life.
Boys that should have grown into men,
Were transported to a foreign field,
And told to capture a piece of land,
Which, at all costs, they must not yield.
So they died in their thousands,
For some General’s mistaken ideal,
That waging a war of attrition,
Would never be his Achilles heel.
Those brave and broken boys,
Betrayed by those in authority,
Were then betrayed again,
When not considered a priority.
Their anguish not recognized,
So some took up the pen,
And wrote in rhyme the reason
Why: they could never be mended men.
Oh, they’ll be honoured…once a year,
Handed medals which are cheap,
A wheelchair if they’re lucky,
Oh, it’s enough to make one weep.
A Prime Minister speaks of gallantry,
While those in the armed forces,
Hold tight to their sacks of money,
Saying they must protect their resources.
How does one put a price on a lost limb?
Or weigh the cost of a man’s tortured mind?
Shell shocked and desperate to forget,
Is the common symptom many doctors find.
Once home I struggle to pick up my life,
Trying to forget the horrors I have seen,
But the faces of dead comrades,
Remind me where I’ve been.
I still see that crop of cadavers,
In the ploughed darkness of my dreams,
So I place a pillow over my face,
To smother the sound of my screams.
End
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Comments
You've managed to capture the
You've managed to capture the anguish. Written with feeling and raising so many issues.
Heartfelt writing.
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Hello again, Moya. You've
Hello again, Moya. You've well captured your thoughts and many issues concisely in verse here.
I'm still mulling over what the men at the time thought, and whether 'dying for country' was the vague thing we think of today, or whether it was the safety of the people of their country that was in their minds
There always seems so much to see more clearly with hindsight, and there always is such a mixture of right concerns, and foolishness or worse, all muddled up together in events of the past!
Rhiannon
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I agree about the medals,
I agree about the medals, Moya. How much do they matter? I watched a parade where some veterans wore lots of medals and one wizened little chap only had one. Made me wonder if he felt less good than the rest or if he was strong enough not to care. Elsie
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Excellent poem Moya. Only
Excellent poem Moya. Only just come to read it - sorry. I can see that you've entered the competition and with this quality on show you must be in with a shout. Good luck!
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A heartfelt poem Moya,
A heartfelt poem Moya, quality writing with the anguish and confusion coming through. Brilliant stuff, and very relevant sentiments.
Linda
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