THE SADNESS OF WAR
Sadness is the one overwhelming feeling that I brought back from Nam.
I bought it there as I patrolled on foot past abandoned railway lines
With blown bridges sagging into placid, meandering streams
And torn up rails lazily settling into the mud of fallow fields
The countryside so full of promise of bountiful harvest
And yet so destitute... and so sad.
The French triangular fort that we used as an LZ to start a patrol
Zigzag trenches encroached on all sides
Until finally they reached under the wire
And caused countless casualties on both divides.
Countless not because of the numbers involved
But simply because nobody bothered to count.
So sad, that anyone's life was not even a number.
Sadness sums up my war rather well... perhaps any war...