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Mothers crying, sisters weeping, wives waiting.

Fathers pacing, brothers worrying,

hope being strung thin as wire and brittle as bones.

Babies wailing – yearning for love’s lost arms.

Heart pounding, orders drilling, adrenaline pumping.

The sounds unforgettable:

The sound of death when the glass shatters and shrapnel flies.

The sound of pain when his last breath lingers in his lungs.

Silence heavy as lead.

The feelings undeniable:

To know he was someone’s son—

To feel his mother crying, sister weeping, and wife waiting.

To know you are alive, but unsure of how long.  To feel the onset of the unknown.

The questions rising:

Reduced to machines

Fighting for the cause – what cause?

The cause of freedom?  The cause of Democracy?

Or the cause for power, and the cause for control?

You see the deserted buildings surrounded by dry desert sand—

Gutted buildings that once knew life.

The remnants of fallen soldiers—

A mangled limb here, a boot there, another badge, and a letter written in haste—

Scattered among the piles of rubble that sing the song of victory.

The remnants of two worlds collided;

Brought together in butchery,

Unable to differentiate the remains.

We are all human, we are all created.

There is freedom—

It comes after the fatality and devastation.  Unified, truly, by the causes you both pledged your life to.