In a remote place of safety, leaders declare their instructions.
Generals obey these commands and order death and destruction.
This ageless, timeless madness is once again repeated.
With no mercy or compassion until the enemy’s defeated

As smoke and dust with blinding lights
Creates deafening blasts thundering through the night.
Buried in rubble a terrified baby cries.
While a mother seeking shelter can find nowhere to hide.

The displaced and desolate witness their schools and hospitals ravaged.
Whilst their dying young children are deemed collateral damage.
Doctors and nurses toil endlessly to save countless lives.
With no provisions, fuel or medicine, they pray some can survive.

A soldier may be victorious, but he will never truly win.
If leaders send him somewhere else to do it all again
Greed, wrath and tyranny often raises its ugly head.
And the true cost as always, will be the mourning of our dead.

The resonating beauty of a poppy in full bloom
Will forever embody the memory of those we lost too soon.
Old soldiers in their finest have earned our gratitude and respect.
We must learn from their sacrifice and vow never to forget.