A Soldier’s Cry
By Evy Du Mesnil
Rain is falling, the world is crying
Here I am, slowly dying.
Mud is splashing on our camouflage,
I watch men weeping in the shadow of our agony.
As I look I hazily make out men’s faces from dirt.
Those eyes!
Eyes that are full of hate,
Hate for Germans, hate for God, hate for death becoming a reality.
The smell of death and rot is all around
In this new world where gunshots are the only sound.
Blood and bodies cover the ground.
Piling up in a shapeless mound.
If this “cause” was a lie,
Why am I now sent out to die?
Where has my boyhood innocence gone?
It seems that for every year and every smile
I’m forced to stay a longer while.
Is my brother dead and my best friend too?
Those are just to name a few.
My tired body won’t go on,
My hunger’s rising, it won’t be long.
Poor mothers praying, never knowing
Back in Canada it is snowing,
I wonder, where is this war going?
I close my tattered eyes and see
The many people who wait for me.
They wait and wait and wring their hands
And here I am in distant lands.
I long for home and the simple pleasures
And realize all men’s lives are treasures.
Oh, if I could only be
Home, where I am really free.