For the Boys Who Went to War (and the childhood they left behind)

For the boys who went to war

Their childish dreams aglow

Of fighting with their friends,

So little did they know.

So little had they lived

To know what horrors lay

Waiting in the trenches,

A game they’d learn to play.

Their childish ways forgot

As death loomed o’er their head

Their guns fired real bullets,

No one there played dead.

Their playing days had gone

The child went with them too

The things he saw and did,

He’ll never share with you.

So think of that small boy

Who bravely went to war

He left home as a child,

That child will be no more.

To all the brave people who made the  ultimate sacrifice, we are forever in your debt.