No Such Thing As A 'Rightous War' Poem by Wayne Leon Learmond

And within those trenches
thick with blood.

Thick with mud
Bone and guts.

We wipe our eyes
as best we could.

And wait
for the order
to go.

And many a friend
And many a man.

The rich and the poor
and the miner's son.

Stood side by side
We did not hide.

From the enemy
above
or
below.

And the mighty dead
they will not rise.

From those trenches
raise those eyes.

To see another
red sunrise.

Or kiss their wives
hello.

As the commander
gives the order to march.

Bayonets in hand
we begin to charge.

Over those trenches
we did forge
Into the unknown
we flow.

We enter into
'No Man's Land'.

'Parade Formation'
Blood-spilled ground.

Machine gun bullets
all around.

We fall into
the mud and snow.

And what did we gain
from the enemy?

125 square miles
of mud, only.

At a cost of over
600,000 men.

Oh my God
were going again.

And those friends
I once but knew.

Are nothing
but mangled
bone and spew.

Died there, forgotten
in the snow and rain.

And this hell of a war
goes round my brain.

The screams
The yells
The horror of it all.

When my friends
and I
Began to fall.

And the memories
bring it back all the more.

There is no such thing
as a
'RIGHTOUS WAR'.