Confessions of a soldier
Dear wife I killed a man today…
Hence to you, I must confess
This heavy burden of mine
Orders came swiftly
…And thrust upon the battlefield was I!
Shouts of “Charge! Charge!”
Still echoes… through my mind
Blinded by masses of my fellow men
Who seemed to bound past me far, far ahead
Somewhere in the distance an enemy was not seen
I remained cowardly frozen, while oblivious to the dangers all around me
Why in this particular moment to be struck in the head but, not by a missile
But, by too many questions I could not comprehend
Deafening explosions, whistling bullets, a reddening madness in the midst
I stood all alone…
Contemplating with anger and clenching my fists
Then, I spied a suspicious movement from the corner of my eye
He came rushing towards me, bayonet in hand
Now, I reasoned fairly quickly that I did not want to die!
It was he or it was I!
Who was more willing to live?
Were there now moral questions to decide?
Or just animal instinct and something we did?
Sadly my love, all I can say…
Is that, I’m the one who lived and walked away
And again I regret to inform you, that I’m not entirely sure if I sinned
But, this I do know…I did not win!
I killed a man today
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:07 min read
- 2 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJDKLMNOEPEEQRSAATUA |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,176 |
Words | 226 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 28 |
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"Confessions of a soldier" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/68454/confessions-of-a-soldier>.
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