"A Soldiers Sonnet" a day late for Memorial Day, but still...

We must hate war, avoiding it at all cost,
Sometimes however, it is unavoidable.
We hope that our leaders care about what’s lost,
More than the money for which war is liable.

History is littered with war, lives given to frost,
The Winter of war can seem inescapable.
Yet, history it remains, lessons should not be tossed.
Lessons learned can make us more responsible.

Soldiers follow orders, their courage on time embossed.
Hoping sacrifices will make peace durable.
And the monuments, should they from history crossed?
To forget the soldiers forging crucibles?

The soldier knows not what stories history will post,
He knows he fights for his country; expendable.

“A Soldiers Sonnet”

^by
Jerry E Smith
©5/28/17
Tyler Barnes
^{This image was originally found on Unsplash, under the name
Tyler Barnes-648
It is no longer there on Unsplash, but I did a reverse image search and
Found it on PeakPix as a wallpaper.
I am doing my best to give proper attribution and credit to the
photographers in all my posts; sometimes it is not easy when the
original image was saved to my computer
3+ years ago. But I am trying to do right.}

^{These .gifs were created for me by @coquiunlimited; many thanks}