WHAT GOES AROUND, GRANDPA...
I know I served throughout the Civil War:
How else could I recall the vivid scenes
Like caissons being dragged by sweating teams?
Or taste the acrid smoking cannon's bore?
Or shiver in some Richmond's icy plot
While waiting orders to attach the place
That yesterday we held as our own base,
But took it back without a single shot?
Then sit around the night fire's cheery glow
And reminiscing like some dreaming kid
To brag about those things we never did
And hope that folks back home will never know?
One day... it all turned into a ghastly gag:
He spoke of Iwo's black and shifting sand
As though his young account was all firsthand,
As though he'd stood and watched them raise the flag.
Deep down within my heart I rued this game,
And prayed he'd never have the tales to tell
Or pass along to his own sons as well
The sights and smells of war and his own fame.