The Ballad About the Soldier
My dear friends!
Please, read my poem in the comments.
Regards,
Larisa
Comments
This story is about the soldier, an ordinary guy
Those who wanted to live didn't want to die.
He was a good friend, his classmates said,
The things he did were not a regret.
He lived and dreamed, breathed the same air with us,
He was so naive, and it was his plus.
He was the guy of ready sympathy and bravery
just an ordinary guy who would never like to be a
slave.
Nobody could deny that he was a bit of a hesitant guy
as he couldn't make his girlfriend a declaration of love,
to tell her that she was his darling dove.
He didn't want to kill or be killed, just hated the war
But he's got an order and has to go to the war
without even knowing what for.
He was told that he would save the land
And military service was a big grand.
He was not told why he should kill,
He went to the war against his will.
But he was the servant of his country, and had to obey the orders
and wear the soldiers' straps on his shoulders.
Have you ever seen the eyes of his mother when they were to part?
She had an embarrassed look when the parting started.
Have you ever seen the eyes of his girlfriend?
They were the eyes of a frightened creature.
She felt as if he would never again reach her.
Have you ever seen the guy's eyes?
They had a look as he was in a hook.
He didn't want to part with his family, friends, and beloved,
He wanted to live, love, and be loved.
In a foreign, strange land, he walked
had no time to sleep or talk.
He walked and walked through the stormy winds,
through the hard rains without any complaints.
He walked through the mud and blood
as he had to obey the orders and remember,
He was not a cub and had no time for a cud.
But! All of a sudden, everything around became dark,
His body felt a terrible pang
And it seemed to him as the bell rang.
Then the pain disappeared, and he saw a beautiful park
Yes, he went to another world where everything was pearled.
With the loss of one soldier, nothing has changed,
But! Is it really so? For his mother, he was the world
And it was strange that she wouldn't be able to see him,
to hear his voice,
and... if only she had a choice...
She would give anything for his knock at the door
and his voice to shout once more.
And his voice telling her: Don't worry, Mam!
I am in a hurry,
But I'll come back soon
before the rising Moon.
The soldier's heart stopped beating far away from home
In a place with an unfamiliar name.
Now tell me! Who is to blame
Is his photo in the black frame?
He was one in the stream of soldiers,
the stream of broken destinies and lives,
The stream of unappeasable human sorrow
which made in the souls a deep furrow.
The war happened to be a thief
which had stolen lives or caused them great grief.
Life is going on; we live, we love, we work
building new bridges that were destroyed by war
But if we want to build a happy life
We have to remember the soldier who was killed in the war.
We have to understand: war can only ruin and break
for someone's crazy sake.
It ruins and kills not only human bodies
But destroys our wonderful land,
little by little, turning it into the sand.
We have to remember that a soldier
If we don't want the war to repeat,
We have to remember those losses
If we want our land to be complete.
We don't have to forget those who experienced the war,
They still get a start at hearing a thunderstorm
thinking it was another bomb.
We have to realize that even one soldier is a part of the world
And the loss of that soldier means a split
in the integrity of the whole world.
©Larisa Rzhepishevska
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Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thu 8th May 2025 09:49
Thank you Larisa.
Such is the sick state of the world that I in the UK now worry about my loved ones being recruited to fight.
I don't know exactly when it originated - I think it may have been during the Vietnam War - but I remember the anti-war protest cry: "Make love, not war!"
Unfortunately, corrupt politicians and arms dealers know that there is a lot of money to be made from provoking wars - they literally "make a living by killing"!
💐🌷