From humble beginnings whence we dwelt;
Summoned from distant lands, our intentions sincere;
Our desire ensued to protect liberty, alas!
Hostility enduring, we could not, their armour tarnish;
A conflict persisting far longer than many foresaw;
Leading fellow friends, colleagues, brothers to the nightmare of war;

Squalid, foul and nights depressed;
Hath not relieved our pain, struggles, oppressed;
Courageous, brave we appeared, seldom felt;
“Over the top”, our hearts hastened to melt;
A flurry of movement, driven forward, a dastardly crusade?
Adrenaline, monotonous thundering, desolation screamed;
Cacophonous, the tormenting sensation from hell;
Thus this became the yarn we seldom lament to tell;

A journey towards Satan’s pleasure;
Observing as you grovel, this becomes his endeavour;
A tear splitting the earth, from thou Hades reigns;
Excruciating agony pulsating through one’s veins;
Laying stricken upon foul, lie the prostate victims of barrel’s wrath;
Charted, this derives from a single bullet’s path;

Comrades in arms, hearts and mind;
We hastened to respond to malevolence in kind;
Eternal doom stretched out, your path ahead;
Dystopia beyond reckoning, a remaining thread, a fading light;
I could not conceive of decency immersed in this dreadful plight;
No, in this time hitherto unachievable;
Conceiving the inconceivable.