Why Oh Why

Desperation leaves behind a rancid, State of mind, Bomb blasts ring through the city, Deafening the already blind, What a pity. Aimlessly wandering alone, Have no more a home, All I want is a small space, In a bombed out place, To hang my head, Cry and mourn my dead. I heard my wife’s terrified scream, Our children died, At the scene, As so did she, the apartment Separated into two, As bricks, mortar and Debris flew, The images are and will be With me, Wherever, whatever I do, I made my way to Join the line, Wanted to be recruited. Behind me, I was joined with yet a few, More who wanted to fight, As was the only thought That was foremost in our minds For what we had, and lost, We paid the unimaginable, Ultimate cost, Our family’s blood was spilled, To live or die, Meant nothing anymore, I wanted to join my family At Heavens door. And so I enlisted, Men, anyone please come, we Need you, I was thirty nine, In my prime, Over eighteen, another Twenty one years to reach sixty, They accepted a limping Volunteer who was fifty, Same state of mind, me And he, Our weapons at the ready, Wishing for the moment, As I held my Daughters’ small brown teddy. I never thought revenge Was sweet, Dear God forgive me, Such a treat, Holding this gun, Even though I know I’m beat. Such tanks I’d never seen, I did not care, I stood in front And fired and fired. I must have died, For faintly I see, All three, Welcoming me, My wife, My life, My children, And my papa. Who we’d lost last year, I felt no fear, I was almost home, And no more alone.