Where Have All the Young Men Gone
For Veterans' Day, Nov. 11, 2022
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone to fight in foreign lands,
To make the world a better place
And place it in more peaceful hands.
Why did all the young men go?
To do their duty, every one.
To help the cause of liberty
For peoples they don't even know.
When will they be coming home?
When all the guns have ceased to roar.
We'll raise a cheer when they return
And pretend they brought an end to war.
But how will some come home again?
In bag or box, it's all the same.
And what will they remind us of?
That war's a wasteful, senseless game.
Who will mourn these fallen sons?
Mothers, fathers everywhere,
And all the rest who stayed behind
And cheered them when they went to war.
Where are heroes laid to rest?
On the breast of immortality,
To sleep, warmed by a vigil flame
That burns their names in history.
And what will be their legacy?
This epitaph for one and all:
All wars must end ere there will be
No more young men to heed the call.
Author's note: WWI was called "The Great War" and was supposed to be "the war to end all wars". But it was, in fact, merely a sequel to all the wars before it and a precursor to all that have followed in its wake. There are no winners or losers in war…only casualties and survivors.
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