The Soldier Boy Lies Dying Poem by Scarlett Treat
The Soldier Boy Lies Dying
The Militant Soldier Boy
Lies dying. In shame,
His body lies in disgrace,
Because he could no longer face
The Innocents.
The Innocents, the ones who died
At his hand in that foreign land.
He saw them in his dreams.
He saw them when he was awake,
Or walking about his hometown,
His place of safety, his refuge.
They stood beside him
At the altar
Of his church,
And when he was at work,
Until he could no longer face
The Innocents.
And so, with his Soldier Boy's
Tattered Honor gathered about him,
His heart gave a sigh.
He decided he must die,
Shamed and alone,
Like the Innocents.
Dedicated to all soldiers who must live with the horror of death.
Scarlett Treat, March 26,2007
I like the way you have repeated the lines 'The Innocents' it hammers home the true horror and often pointlessness of war. the sometime rhyme in the poem also keeps the flow and directness of the poem. The final stanza is the killer, and it makes you stop and think and remember never to forget. Robin
I think this is very powerful - in any war, there are innocents as casualties (the nature of the beast) and the additional casulties are the soldiers that must live with what they saw and had to do to survive. I don't feel you are taking sides here. I feel you are poetically stating the fact that some of the consequences of going to war are not pretty. avr
War is what it is, A souless thing, A pendulum of grief and destroyer of all things, Your poem gives an insight as to how it can effect peoples lives, For that it is commendble.
This is so sad Scarlett, but it airs a veiw-point that is seldom seen, compassionatly written Take care Love duncan X
Far from being a disservice, this is a powerful attack on those who criticise the military, Scarlett, and I think it is great. I see the repetition of 'The Innocents' as an ironic critique of those who view Iraq as a land of the occupier and the occupied. They are deluded in that view. A really great piece, Scarlett.
It is a hard poem to get through must ‘ve been even harder to write
I must have missed something, when i joined this site 1 year ago next week. I had no idea that everything i would read or write must be of an auto-biographical nature, or of the Poet's personal viewpoint....I thought some of us were storytellers....I for one, fall deep into this chimerical category....and those who read me regularly know so.Silly me...Must I now pull all my Poems & change the tone & diction to mirror my mind...Surely no one would be so inclined to find me as interesting as my stories...Great Work, Sweet Scarlett...Pen away & have some fun! ~ FICTIONAL FRANK ~
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/13/2024 10:22:06 PM # 1.0.0.1119
I have received a comment from a dear friend here who felt that I did a disservice to the men and women who serve this great country, and I want to let everyone know that I fully support and defend our American Troops. I have no disrespect for any of them, I admire the service they give. There are, however, people who come back from war, scarred, never to be the same after their service, because of the horror they see and have to live with the rest of their lives. This poem, written with pure poetic license to show both sides of the feeling in this country right now, does not necessarily reflect my feelings.