Regret Poem by Stephen Rule

I lie here alone with this pain in my chest,
Where has the enemy gone?
I see only the bodies of men now dead,
Was I left to die here alone?
Recalling the moments of fury and hell,
Was I fighting friend or foe?
With all the chaos on the battlefield,
How was I to know?
My eyes move through the lifeless bodies,
Searching through the death.
I'm trying to find the one I know,
The soldier I called friend.
Before we heard the beasts approach,
There was a promise that he asked.
'If in battle I should die,
Then please, take on this task,
My wife and sons live to the North,
Just follow the beaten path,
Tell them I fought very hard,
But now my life has passed.'
Amongst all the bodies and the decay,
I see him lying without life.
Now I must go up to the North,
Now I must tell his wife.
But in that moment I felt time stop,
The sadness in me grow.
When I discovered what killed my friend,
The sword it was my own.