Penny Rock

ONE AND TWENTY

I am but one and twenty.
I live in a land called war.
Death is all around me.
I never knew such pain before.

Clocks tick hours and minutes.
Calendar pages turn.
They mark the passage of my life –
A life that others spurn.

I am so very young.
It’s very likely I am told,
I’ll need to give my life
Before I can grow old.

They say it’s not uncommon
For people of my youth
To be sacrificed for country.
I fear it is the truth.

I’m told I have one purpose.
My job is just to give.
It may require that I die
So someone else may live.

I have to deny my heart.
I must not love or grieve.
I can only weep goodbye
As youthful bodies leave.

So many bodies through my hands,
I cannot count the number.
I just feel the terrible burden
As I send them to death’s slumber.

I feel so alone here,
No love and no affection.
The only thing my country gives me
Is lies and misdirection.

There appears to be no future.
My life ends here it seems.
The war has stopped me in my tracks,
And silenced all my dreams.

It doesn’t make much sense to me.
I was born, but for what reason?
To extinguish life in the bloom of youth
Is a cowardly act of treason.

I am but one and twenty.
I live in a land called war.
I see life through veils of tears.
I want to live and nothing more.