Toy Soldier

Out of the sea and the sand

Crawled what was left of a man.

Arms and legs all were intact,

But weighed down by the burden he bore on his back,

He crawled amongst tufts of high grass

While the breeze pierced his flesh like sharp glass.

But he knew if he stopped he would die,

For such was his fate if he did not even try.

He was merely a pawn in a game,

Played by generals or gods without names.

The boy had no mind of his own

And into the world he crawled all alone.

Left behind bloody fields of gore,

Left behind remnants of war.

He was drawn from the fighting by love,

Drawn by a figure who called from above.

“Put down your gun and your pack,

Worry not of the coming attack.”

A goddess, beautiful and bright,

Revealed to him a path that led out of sight.

The smoke and the din were too much,

So the boy dropped the weapon he clutched,

And on his hands and his knees,

He crawled from the ocean of men to the trees.

But the boy had been deceived,

For a final dead end he perceived.

The goddess had led him astray,

He'd been led down a road and by love was betrayed.

The remnants of this beaten boy

Were only but parts of a toy.

The broken toy soldier became

Part of the earth from whence he came.