I SAW A YOUNG MAN WALKING

.

The youth I met today was old,

A child of early times,

Much water had passed under bridge,

How oft’ those church bells chimed.

One hundred or more years, I’d say,

They stood at young man’s grave to pray,

And yet I saw the lad today,

I knew he’d lived before.

.

The boy I met today was old,

His face was known to those,

Who knew and loved the lad before,

The army took his clothes.

I wondered where he since had slept,

Would he remember me?

I saw him last in bloom of youth,

When age was not to be.

.

Perhaps he never had recall,

Of early fate that bled,

The young men in those dreadful wars,

When rich men must be fed:

Now will he once more go to war,

Dodge bullets or their lies,

For lies are shameful epitaphs,

When young men give their lives.

Michael Walsh Anti-War Poetry