Dearly Departed

A sunny Spring day,
Perfect in every way

A day just like many years before,
When we were young and off to war

Marching in a glorious parade,
Soaking up patriotic accolades

Old men spoke impassioned words,
For a noble cause now blurred

Lost somewhere in the fog of recollection
The war took us in a different direction

To an inferno where our demons convened
Scarred battlefields strewn with mangled dreams

Tourists today visit the manicured site
Trying to get their photo ops right

Right next to the souvenir shop stands a plaque
Recounting a litany of casualty facts

Most don’t even bother reading the sign
Now just big numbers diminished by time,

But to us forgotten ghosts who didn’t come back
Our sacrifice is more than a mere statistical fact

Not that we require any bronze statues
Dieing was never what we intended to do

Heroes we became quite accidently
Fighting forever battles throughout eternity

We are the faceless casualties of war
Still trying to figure out what we died for