Final Soliloquy Poem by Genevieve Pilat

Gun shots ringing, blood splattering
Debris and rubble falling from the skies
Hiding in trenches mud to my knees
My life flashing before my eyes.

Have I truly lived life the way I wanted
Or have I been so blind?
I have experienced all that I can?
Am I willing to part with what’s behind?

I wanted to have my whole life change
Begin as a boy, come back a man
Sign up and join the war, become a hero
That was my initial plan.

Yet as watch men like me fall and die
My body trembling by the sight
Deep down I feel this sudden fear grow
A horrid sensation of fright.

At eighteen I fast forwarded life to be a man
Abandoned my youthful days
Losing all chances to experience life
My innocence now no longer stays.

But now I must keep an adult mind
That is the only way
So that I can return to my youthful life
That is only if I see another day.