Toy Soldier — Poem

If you don't know, April is National Poetry Month, so I am sharing one of MINE. This was a very personal expression at a very young age, and it still holds tight in my psyche. I do not often write about loss, but this one is very personal.

TOY SOLDIER

Toy soldier, Toy soldier, why did you die?

You went off to war, I wonder why?

Were you a patriot or a fool

or simply some General’s tool?

Cold and lonely in a foreign land, you hold your rifle tight in hand.

The screaming sound of bombs in the sky,

you run and run you have to try.

Life becomes all-important when lost.

You pull the pin the grenade is tossed.

Men lay dead at your feet.

Men you know and will never meet.

Screams and cries from all around

You plug your ears from this horrid sound

your mind is racing what to do?

If you slow down, it might be you!

You hit the prone and open fire

to say you are not scared makes you a liar.

The sweat in your eye burns

nausea in your stomach churns.

You want to cry out, “STOP THIS, LORD!”

But nothing can quiet this screaming hoard.

You wipe your head and see the blood

it’s a scarlet mixture of mud.

You get lightheaded and fade away

to a dreamland where there is no more day.

A sorry state of desperate need

and just like drifting off to sleep

the reaper comes and pulls you deep.

A crying mother your image she sees

at your funeral, the family grieves.

For one TOY SOLDIER who went and died

for COUNTRY, GLORY, or FOOLISH PRIDE.