| “Education is what you need to get ahead, And the money for it will be easy to earn.” That’s what the man in the well-pressed uniform said. Little did I know how much I had to learn, Like who I can and who I cannot trust. It’s knowledge I need to live from one day to the next, While every pore of my skin is filled with dust, And the hardened faces around me serve as my text.Here I am, stuck in a low-grade, high-tension war, Every minute of every day from now on, Wondering what in the world we are doing this for And when they’ll decide when we can go home. One night a month in uniform this is definitely not, Nor is it two weeks a year playing GI. That became clear to me the day Horace was shot, And it took all of two minutes for him to die. He’d just been telling me how they couldn’t make ends meet What a way to die! I wonder if the misled folks at home would mind David Martin |
With apologies to Wilfred Owen.