The Rising Sun

Blood rush

Cries and screams

From the warriors

Fallen on the battle field

Crimson carpets

Rolled out so nobly

For monarchs and royals

Who continue ruling kingdoms

Sacrificing lives

To expand horizons

Beyond the rays of the rising sun

The soldiers rally

Heat of sweating bodies

Awful scents of dirty uniforms

As the summer sun

Scorches us in merciless light

Many comrades fallen

What need is there to continue forward?

Why lay down my life?

For a king on a golden throne?

Who knows nothing of my family?

My home and neighbours

My soul's struggles to carry on?

It's been two years

Since this righteous war began

Two years, and my son has grown

Into a sweet young boy

Who doesn't know his own father

And what sadness I bear

That all the time I have had with him

Were the few moments he lay in my arms

The blessed day that he was born

A few days before I departed from home

I see his gentle smile

Grinning at me

Innocent and carefree

From the little squares of pictures

His mother sends regularly

Folded neatly in pure envelops

Captured at special moments of his life

His first step

His first birthday

His time at daycare

His toddler friends grinning

The same innocent giggles

That never comprehend suffering

Never witnessed the cruelty

That is our reality

With knowing eyes

And burdened hearts

But he will grow as quick as time races

For time never stops

Until it reaches the finish line

He will be a man, with his own children one day

Without knowing his father

To guide him in times of trouble and dismay

Those times when nothing seems logical

And life plunges into an insane nightmare

Dropping into a battlefield

And no amount of support or training

Prepares a man for the hardships of battle

I don't know when I will return home

Trapped in the present war

That rages on and on and on

As enemies flank our numbers

Murdering my beloved comrades

Left, right and center

I watch them fall

One by one

As blood covers them

In makeshifts coffins

Who knows if I will even survive

To ever meet my sons knowing eyes?

Even with doubts and fears

Burdening my ragged soul

I cannot surrender

To the weight of gravity's pull

Survival mode engaged

Until this terrible chapter comes to an end

I will continue to march on

My head forward to the rising sun

To carry on with what comrades remain

For the slightest possibility

That the final page of my life's story reads

...And he returned home to his son

To live happily ever after.