“I was just taking orders”
There’s blood on my hands.

There’s a cut on my brow
But it doesn’t carry the screams
Of the people on the other side
Like the blood that rushes around my ears,
Through the grooves of my mind

My Commanding Officer,
who wears his wedding ring on a chain around his neck,
A child’s ragdoll in his inner pocket,
Yells at me,
“Don’t just stand there!”

The sky is littered with gunfire.
Clouds of dust gather around muted rays of sunlight;
Choking,
Obscuring,
What am I doing here?

I’m on my back.
It’s too bright.
My eyes are confused, as though I’ve stuck my mind under a running tap and I can’t tell if the burning is fire or ice.
It’s so bright and yet I can no longer see my commrades,
The battlefield clears.

And I’m playing with my little one.
“Why do you have to go?”
Her tiny fingers grasp mine,
Her lips quiver as I stroke her hair,
“I was just taking orders”


#ReverseChronology
#war
© The Innocent Lyricist