Unlucky Ones

-Unlucky Ones-
by Keaton Foster


Here
War
Everywhere
Death
Dismemberment
Unlucky ones
Psychologically spent
We signed up
Volunteered
Whores of action
Training for combat
Never sure
We’d see it
But we did
And
Here we are
Brothers in arms
Boys made into men
Killing in the name
Of all that we wish
For those not so brave
For those unwilling
To do as much
For themselves
I’ve done things
Such horrible things
I’ve slaughtered men
More than I know
The enemy
As they are called
Unlucky ones
It’s us or them
And in most cases so far
It’s been mostly them
Some of my friends
Just a few too many
Of my brethren
Have been killed
Here
Within this madness
They don’t call it murder
But rather
Casualties of war
Acts of attrition
After each battle
An unspoken truths
Is easily abided
Those deceased
Those killed in action
Are gathered up
Sorted out
Draped in a flags
Stuffed in a boxes
And shipped home
Back to their families
Back to everything
That they gave up
To come here
Half away across
This big blue marble
To destroy the enemy
Of our ways and kind
The good book states
Thou shalt not kill
But in this place
The good book
Quickly becomes absurd
After all
How can we be expected
Not to kill
In such
A target rich environment
Unlucky ones
Both those who die
And those who survive
We will all be changed
By what we’ve done here
At some distant point
We will have to answer
We will have to meet
The equal creator of us all
What will we say
Will we confess to him
That what we did
Was a matter of survival
A matter of us or them
Will he come to understand
Or will he point to his words
The ones made so absurd
The ones not heard
In the fight between
The enemies of all human kind
Will he forgive us
Is such a thing possible…


Unlucky Ones
Written by Keaton Foster Copyright © 2014.