The sound of silence filled the air, <br />just before the dawn. <br />The sun’s streaky fingers stretched <br />forward on the fading night sky. <br />I walk in desolation, <br />for reasons I know not why. <br />The chorus of the morning birds <br />has yet to break the spell <br />of the unstrained silence, <br />which on everything had befell. <br /> <br />I tried to remember yesterday, <br />when the oyster of the world was mine. <br />I tried to see the smiling faces, <br />of those I loved and left behind. <br />The war was not mine or theirs, <br />but always someone has to go, <br />to do the battles for the sake of someone’s word. <br /> <br />An order given by a faceless person <br />and thousands throw away their lives. <br />There is no reason given, <br />and the faceless one doesn’t hear their cries, <br />of all those who fall on battlefields. <br />Giving up their families and their lives. <br />They call them cowards, those who refuse, <br />to follow orders to commit suicide. <br />There is no adventure in dying; <br />in a place, you cannot pronounce the name. <br />There is no glory in suicide, <br />but wars make men do it just the same. <br /> <br />When will they ever realize, <br />wars make no difference at all, <br />except to make rows of white crosses, <br />as memorials to those who had to fall. <br />I shudder at the sounds of the guns, <br />breaks the silence in my ears. <br />Will my loved ones before the days end, <br />be among those to shed tears? <br /> <br /> <br />13 March 1984<br /><br />David Harris<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-will-they-ever-realize/
