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.
When growing up, thought poems were for sissies
Sure was misguided, it now allows for my sillies
To come front and center
Hold on to your dentures
Don't want you to pop a split back of your civvies
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