The Price Of War

The Price Of War

Gabriel Magno © 2011

I ride the across the Southern plains, on a train bound for my home

Recalling faces without names, still hear them cry, still hear them moan

Confederate soldiers young and old, who fell afoot trying to defend

Their southern land as they stood bold, and faced the Yankees to the end

Americans kill Americans, while generals did prophetize

This be for love of freedom, but freedom had its price

Six hundred thousand men were lost, was this not our darkest hours?

The silent grave yards now play host, to those who grieve and lay their flowers

Their mothers cried from dusk to dawn, as memories surely made them slaves

To always vision loved ones gone, who now laid silent in their graves

And yet today still unafraid, we die for freedom and our nation

And as a soldiers in this parade, I march in perfect close formation

Preparing once again to board and fly, to distant parts of foreign lands

How many many more must die, before out leader understands

That many have already gone, the way of those who fought so brave

And never faced another dawn, and chaplains prayed their souls to save

And as for me I did return, from fields of war and from the dregs

And as veteran I still yearn, to have my arms, to have my legs

Don’t cry for me, don’t shed a tear, I once stood proud in that parade

And fought the battle without fear, and saw my flag wave ‘till it frayed

I was not born a governor’s son, and served not in the National Guard

But went to war with many friends, who fought the battles long and hard

And in the middle of my life, I now think back on days gone by

And with my sons and with my wife, I live in peace but others die