His courage stirred with thoughts of glory,
He yearned to experience combat in a war.
He was young, invincible and courageous,
and he always loved movies about wars,
the glorious battles and the conquests.
But he wasn’t mentally prepared for the
horrors he saw in the many battles
he was engaged in.
Blood running in rivulets.
Arms and legs blown off.
Heads and bodies exploding.
Flesh ripped from faces and limbs.
The stench of death rising in the air.
The cries, moans and screams of the
wounded and the dying.
He came home from the war a hero.
But he was never the same again,
his days and nights plagued with the horrors
and the nightmares of all he saw in the war.
Bob Boyd