The Great War

I lost a great deal in that war,

we all did,

we lost friends and

neighbors,

homes and wealth,

family members,

possessions,

we lost everything,

yet because we lived,

we lost nothing,

I sometimes wonder

who the lucky

ones were;

those who perished or

those who survived;

no one could say

how it began,

like most wars it had

no beginning or end,

it simply came and

went,

like measles,

or smallpox,

or the flu;

when it was finished,

those who were left

simply picked up the pieces

and started over;

there was very little choice;

they said it was the war

to end all wars,

just like all the wars

before it,

no one really cared one

way or the other,

the time for caring

had long since come

and gone,

now there was simply

living or dying,

breathing or not breathing,

seeing or not seeing,

surviving or perishing;

a world of our own creation,

a nightmare of our own doing.

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