Someone Else's War

War echoes in humanity,
a hard culling, a cyclic placation
of all that love is,
and the blood spilled in belief,
of righteous lies and deceit,
is but a reminder of fragility,
and in the end who other than greed
benefits.

Young men face fear direct,
and against all odds fight
for country, family and belief,
a delusion of questionable truth,
and what they see, touch and feel,
shatters all that could have been,
in a just world,
of potential.

Instead minds are changed,
beyond redemption beyond return,
when torturous death and gore,
resounds in nightmare minds,
forever to be the canvas of any life at all,
and those who return,
live in guilt for having survived,
while mates and comrades live forever in pain.

Purpose sought and rarely found,
haunt the mind relentlessly,
fractured pictures of fire, blood and limbs torn,
smoke and rumbling earth,
the cries of fallen, alone and fading,
within a mind in comfort, now,
just too much to bear,
too much to assimilate.

And so they drink and smoke
and try to dull the memories,
etched hard in cognizance,
a secret wanting to join their mates,
remove this weight upon them,
and the pain, like scraping dull blades consumes,
caught between life and death,
from war, a shell, a hope yearned, bereft.

Silently they whisper,
it was someone else’s war.