I Heard The Thunder Of The Guns Resound Poem by Gert Strydom

I heard the thunder of the guns resound,
saw rockets taking red tails into the sky,
with passing battle-tanks felt the trembling ground
and over and away fighter jets did fly.

To some it was the judgement-day
and I a mere man was lost
when I saw thousands decimated lay
and wondered about war and its cost

while those sights, smells and sounds
remains with me still
and the explosions of shells, the thudding of rounds,
brings back the deadly chill
of when to escape burial in the ground
mere boys were forced to kill

and this brings to me
the reckless indifference of life in the previous century
where no man was really completely free
from a myriad of obligations
and responsibility.