As a child he played soldiers,
Marched them gaily off to war,
As a young man he joined them
As so many had done before.
He was sent off to places
He wished he'd never been
And he saw some sights
He wished he'd never seen
He performed some some acts
He wished he could undo
But they told him he was fighting
To defend the rights of folk like you.
He finished his engagement
Still a relatively young man
And dealt with the memories
The way the resilient can.
Now so many years later
The bad dreams won't go
And he's become the kind man
That nobody wants to know.
He wanders the streets to escape
The voices screaming in his head
From some of the things he's done
And some of the things he's said,
And he sees your disgust
When he tries to escape in booze
And he's sorry if he offends you but
You've never walked in his shoes.
The actions of a man return
To haunt him when he's older
Like so many he's become just
Another unwanted broken soldier .
