Guns and lilies on fields of honor grow
where souls of men collide
when duty and honor call the charge
and courage marks the stride.
Against the intent and cause
of dangerous profligate men
our good and brave go forth
to defeat their evil ends.
It is our brothers and our sons, we call –
our nephews and our friends.
These dear ones to us all,
we always choose to send.
From youthful dreams we snatch them up
and teach them to kill or die,
to endure horrors we shall never know
after we have said goodbye.
Yes, honor can be found on the fields
where guns and lilies grow,
when our boys, now men,
learn things we can never know.
Yet, are we merely left to dream of them,
to pray for them, the boys we send to war?
Can we not some day, some way, the reason
or the wisdom find to finally say no more?
Copyright 2009 Robert D. McKinley
All rights reserved