Analysis of Dear Brothers

To you, dear brothers, born in blood,
I write these words so long past due,
about my tears of forty years
that flow straight to a flood
with every thought of you.

I know the face I wear today
is not the soldier you once knew -
but you, young brothers all, stayed strong and tall,
still mean and lean in every way,
reward for what came down on you.

The life I lived since our last fight
had joy along with sorrow;
but I admit I never fit
it never felt quite right -
I did not have my brother's strength to borrow

It wasn't our defeat to claim,
I want you all to know.
We won the fight of right and might,
our leaders lost in shame;
the Nam's the same it never changed;
it's just we never had to fucking go.