‘Pro Rege, Pro Patria,’ you tell me with wistful smile creasing sad eyes.

I squint up with narrowed lids,
Trying to push scepticism aside as my sight traces the words carved into the stone.

‘Pro Rege, Pro Patria.’
I can barely contain my scoffing.

But I do, because as ridiculous as I find it that we are claiming these men
actually died for
Something,
I would never dream of disrespecting them.

In fact, in my eyes,

They are the kings,
The noblemen,
The deities.

They deserve
More
Than the riches of their wildest imaginings.

They deserve
A family,
A beating heart,

A silver-lined
Life.

They are worth more
Than a fancy inscription
On a grey headstone.

And some didn’t even get that.

Consider this, though:
What use is a fancy inscription when you’re a pile of bones under the ground?

We can only hope that there is a
Heaven.
That they are living like
Kings.
That their divine lives are
Silver-lined.

That they can’t see how little has changed,
Because that is, I think, the saddest thing of all.

I look up again,
At the clouds sweeping across the sky.

It was then that I thought:

Just as
The clouds keep moving,
The Earth keeps turning.

And

Just as
The Earth keeps turning,
Humans will never stop fighting.

That’s why
I can’t help but scorn those words.

‘Pro Rege, Pro Patria,’ you tell me with wistful smile creasing sad eyes.

And that’s why I cry:

Because I know better.