inspiration

In a previous post I mentioned how sometimes the words just flow, but I thought I'd expand on that a bit more. The words usually only "flow" when I've been inspired (or when my muse decides to drop by for a bit). Luckily for you, this happened recently. :-)

I was listening to one of my favorite songs, "Show Me The River", by eastmountainsouth, and one of the lines just hit me. It's not like I'd never heard that line before. I've listened to the song multiple, MULTIPLE times. But for some reason it jumped out at me:

Got love on my mind, but death on these hands

(It wasn't really italicized in my mind. It just echoed.)

So I pulled out a piece of paper and started writing. What came out is the following poem (slightly edited and expanded upon, and formatted for your reading pleasure, although I haven't figured out a title yet).



They marched us long and hard,
for God and Country and Freedom.
But the heat of righteous conviction is hard to hold onto
when winter sets in and the men seem to drop like flies.
Every hole in my boots,
every child marching next to me,
every friend made and lost only serve to drag me down.
The more I fight the less I understand what we’re fighting for.
My heart was left behind with you
– in its place lead enough for a cannon ball.
I can no longer see the green fields or blue eyes I yearn for;
their hate has stained my hands red, my soul black.

If I make it home, I will plant my feet with the corn
and wait for the rain to wash me clean.