Cement and concrete cracks and crumbles,
steel and sand buries and breaks,
trapped beneath layers of rubble,
one wrong move is all it takes.

Just "unfortunate" says the news,
twelve more men, a few new widows,
spinning stories of their bravery,
as they trembled through the streets.

Sent to fight in another world,
where men do anything for their State,
handed to death on a silver platter,
giving him control of their fate.

You can give and you can take,
but that's where we're mistaken,
because you can't take back the lives,
you give once they're forsaken.