Ode to an Enemy Soldier

Written for the Poem per Day Forum, January 16th, 2005

You died so many years ago
Simply because you were the enemy
And it was either kill or be killed.

I didn’t want to kill you.
I didn’t want to die.
So I pulled the trigger
And I still ask myself, “ Why?
Why did you have to die?”

It was a sign of the times,
A time when no one could win.
If we had met each other now,
I am certain we would have been friends.

War. It is just a way of destroying ourselves.
War. It is just a little bit of hell.
Now I ask for your forgiveness,
Now I ask for mine.