BEACH OF BONES

Dug in on the beach,
smell of burnt flesh.
Tide red with the blood of youth,
Screams of mother and god,
Fog of war, another life spent.
Now I must kill.
Leave them fatherless,
as the pieces of bodies I step over.
In the middle of this madness,
I cry for it to be over.
Not of fear, not of malice,
not for me, but for all of us.
Looking down my rifle sights,
no time to think, just kill and fight.
But the trigger, I cannot pull,
must stop this madness,
can no longer kill.
I drop my rifle,
I rise to my feet,
I look to the heavens,
I hear my heartbeat.
I am cut down instantly.
In a hail of lead,
I fall on my back,
I must be dead.
I begin to rise,
Above the carnage,
I realize the gesture,
Was a waste of my knowledge.
Of wars horror,
Of this I can teach,
I begged the lord,
"Send me back to that beach!"
A sudden peace besets me now,
I need to return, return right now.
Opening my eyes, I am back on the bloody beach,
"Mom! Oh God! I can't feel my feet!"
Knowing inside,
I will be going home,
My misery not wasted,
My message this poem.
War is hell, as the saying goes,
No glorious ending,
Just a beach full of bones.

ABC'S TO A 21 GUN SALUTE

A silence beset his stride,
A gentle splashing of the blood red tide,
A lifeless vessel, rolling in the surf,
A mother's son, taken from the earth.
A living man wanders the line,
A day before, he marked his time,
A living fury, of this he saw,
As he wanders, slack in jaw.

Beast of war roared here steady,
Brought down Michael, Sean and Eddy,
Boys of summer, the year before,
Boys of eternity, forever more.
Boys will follow, and more will pass,
Beckoned by war's fevered blast.

Children once, but kids no more
Childhood cancelled because of war.
Childhood memories, are all that's left,
Chaplain visits, with sincere regrets.
Carefree lives, they once led,
Cast in headstones,
Cause now they're dead.