The war changed me.
I was swallowed by the lies and the fear
of a world corrupted by hatred.
We trudged through forgotten land
and waited for a sign,
A beacon of hope,
through the nothingness of the dark days,
months,
years.

Enemy bombs searched for us,
searched through the black wind,
ending any bit of joy and laughter
that might have survived the storm.
The sound was the signal of a fallen soldier,
a fallen brother.
The black smoke smouldered into red,
reminding us that this is war.
A war that changed every man
In body and in breath
In life and in death
As they came together as one,
those brothers in arms.