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