1

A man who lived

A life so free

Was forced to join

Depravity

They said there was

A rightful cause

The others were

Just breaking laws

But there were two of them fighting,

Both taken up, both unwilling

Both afraid of the threat filling

Their hearts, their heads, their lives.

2

The threat, the danger

Came not just from the stranger,

But from the friend,

Who was supposed to protect

From the danger so bleak,

To calm, to speak,

To him, to help him

To be his friend,

His ally,

This person killed him but he was not

A spy.

3

There were many causes,

Many reasons,

Many excuses

For the executions

The forced fled,

The conscripted, counted their remaining days,

Before coming,

To the conclusion,

That war,

Was an illusion,

War was not worth the death of,

A soul,

A human,

Theirs or their enemy’s.

Sense was seen as betrayal,

Cunning as disloyalty,

They were running from death

To death

By Nicholas Mackay