Do you remember when you were Young?

Do you remember when you were young?
What it’s like
To see first light
The morning’s horizon,
The evening’s sun,
It seems so long
But the night soon starts.

I remember a cry,
A word
A mummer even.
When darkness didn’t exist
And not a worry
Nor a care
Tickled your thoughts.

Then you speak,
You shout and scream
You play your games
And laugh and play,
Neither a worry nor a care.
It’s hard to remember
It’s so different from now.

Then the red comes,
The blood boils
You’re no longer free
You’re trapped by guards
I scream at them
I hate you!
And that is that.

Then I enlist
And become a man
First to the fight
First to die they’d say
I wanted this
It was all I had
All I thought
I had.

Then the bullets fly
And the guns scream cries
Of death and despair
The scream pierces my heart
And those of others
And I fall.
So young
So lost
Yet so scared

What hurt me more?
The pain and the blood?
Or the grief my family
Will soon have to share.
Now I’m here
Thinking of the past
The presents a blur
And the sun sets over me
Watching me no more.