The sweat ran in rivulets from my body beset by dreams
Of devastation and horror invading my my mind
Body parts floating in pools of jellied blood
Kids as young as ten now high on drink and drugs
Why then did we give our lives
To make the world a better place
Why then the blood we shed for you
Is good blood gone to waste
You know, we bled for you, suffered, died
To give you a better place
But you laugh in scorn and hurl abuse
Kick dust into our face

We suffered, we died to give you democracy
Our bodies rot in foreign lands
To give you freedoms speech
But you hurl our dying in the faces
Of those who died for you
Oh you, the drug fueled simpletons
Who don't even try to acknowledge
What we gave up for you

Mangled flesh and shattered bone
The remains of what was once a man
I knew not where he came from, never knew his name
Once a fit young soldier
Now just mangled raw remains
Does it really matter?
Just another families shattered dreams
Another family berieved
Casualty of war, just a name upon a page
Will the generals care about just another grave
Well we gathered up the pieces
About ten pounds of raw red meat
Put sand inside the casket
To help make up the weight
They'll tell you your son died a hero's death
As all our young men do
In truth his limbs were trembling
As the mine he stepped on blew
Oh yes he died for glory on that fateful day
In truth he died for nothing
Just another name on another wooden cross

They sat holding hands on that old wood slat bench
Waiting for the train
She in her flower decorated straw bonnet
He in unformiliar stiff black boots
And itchy khaki suit
Shy as young lovers are they sat holding hands
A seventeen year old innocent country girl
An equally innocent nineteen years old country boy
The train pulled in and with one last chaste kiss they parted

*

Every year for the last seventy years
She has laid flowers by the memorial on the edge
Of the village Green
She has no grave to visit
No sacred place to call her own
For her first loves name is but one of many
Carved on that village memorial stone

Rock bottom is the place
where you realise that the
fundamental flaw in your human
character has not been overcome.
And as much as your try to deny it,
it will haunt and hinder you for the
rest of your days.*

© Maria Francine