Patriotic duty

Destination, an ocean far

For family and country

A young man follows a distant star

*

His homeland fades before his eyes

The ocean beckons wide and vast

Apprehension and uncertainty

Carelessly tossed into the past

*

For no amount of training

Could ever prepare his mind

For the horrors he will encounter

Or the courage he will find

*

The first Great War to end war

Is how it was said to be

Red poppies now held tightly

In remembrance and history

*

Drenched to the bone, frozen by ice

Bullets flying past his head

He sees his mates bravely fall

A young digger, green of bloodshed

*

Advance, they shout, and like a shot

He engages with courage and steel

Bullets, bayonets, bombs, gas masks

Is any of this truly – real?

*

No time to think as the earth shakes

And the mines explode all around

Heard thousands of miles away

That landscape never again, found

*

Finally the victory cry erupts

And the digger prays a silent prayer

But, for the grace of God

His corpse would be lying there

*

This war of vivid memories

Forever cruelly etched into his mind

A robber of youth and vitality

True peace never again to find

.

© Copyright J M Lennox. All Rights Reserved.

More Poetry by this author: Creative Writing Moments