Border Patrol

The East West German Border A heavily guarded barbed wire fence There for containment Not for defence He sat alone in the Mess Methodically drinking Trying to numb his mind Trying to stop thinking. He'd been leading his patrol Out along the wire Had nearly lost control and Let his men open fire. He was almost too late With his urgent shout One or two of the men Had slid live one up the spout A family in the minefield, That's as far as they got A guard in the tower saw them And the father was shot. Just to make sure He was truly dead A full metal jacket To the side of head. They rounded up the family And took them away Just another Cold War incident On another Cold War day. He’d finished the patrol Debriefed the men Changed into his civvies Wandered off and then He sat alone in the Mess Methodically drinking Trying to numb his mind Trying to stop thinking The country now reunited, The Border gone and yet The stones to the dead remain To make sure they don’t forget.