My Brother's Blood

A rifle in my hands, with ammo and grenades
a longing farewell to my home and my wife
a path I have chosen, now a journey to be made
from peaceful hearth, into field of strife.
those I fight are not from foreign shores
They are my neighbors, and some even kin
without a wound, already my blood pours
for those whom I will lose, even if i win.

Do I love a cause so much, to kill my own flesh for it?
Or force these to choose to take my life as well?
To widow my own sister, Heavens! I abhor it!
It's a curse of Cain, and it puts my soul in Hell!
yet justice will not allow me to stand so idly by
and do nothing, while a corrupt regime
tramples truth to silence, and bleeds the people dry
so, i must stand against it,and  suffer the extreme

They speak the same language, and pray to the same God
they are men I know, and many of them friends
to fight them over politics, to death, it seems so odd
to fear to see their faces, when all the fighting ends
to speak to their widows, and see their children's tears
to hear the accusations, and knowing they are true
Is torment, a perdition, to ache a thousand years
and yet it is a suffering, that I am prepared to do.

Dear God, I beg forgive me, for the lives that I must take
and know, I would do anything, to stem this crimson flood
I call upon your mercy, for wives and children's sake
Have grace upon a soldier, who must spill his Brother's Blood.