YOUNG SOLDIERS

Young soldiers go off to war buoyant,
as if it were their own idea.
Probably the pawns don't realize,
when they are leaping two squares ahead
on their first move, that they can only
keep going in the same direction.

[Note: I suppose this is one-sided, that there are some "good wars," not based on lies, that brave young people shouldn't be called pawns and that they know exactly what they're getting into. I'd like to be able to believe that. This much I can say for the soldiers: if they are pawns, so are most of their fellow citizens, believing what they are told to believe, doing what they are told to do, whether it be going to the doctor to demand they be prescribed the latest wonder drug or voting for the candidate who says exactly what (as surveys show) they want to hear. Meanwhile the soldier (by shifting two letters) becomes "solider".]
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Dean Blehert
Blogs:
http://deanotations.blogspot.com (short poems)
http://dearreader08.blogspot.com (essays and longer poems)
New book (Deanotations, Volume 1) available at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/deanotations-volume-one/4649669
WWW.BLEHERT.COM