What I want:
To be with the one I love,
Hold them close so they can hear me say: ‘It is amazing waking up next to you each day’.
Wishing I told them more often-for who knows when we will be gone?

To have a lie in and not hear
Bombs…dropping from up above:

Savour a pint with my mates:
And not worry myself to sleep with the question:
‘What is our fate?’

Eat a meal of my choosing
No more relying on rations

To walk barefoot on the beach and get sand between my toes:
Speak to someone who does not know what ‘war’ means
Long to look forward to the unknown….

Feel excitement run through me
Breathe air that is clean:
To stand and say with trembling pride:
‘We. Are . Free’

What I’ve got:

Fear seeping from every pore
Bones weary
Body and mind screaming
The plea inevitably lost above the roar

Yet if you listen carefully,
You will hear the pleading:
No more war. Please Please.
No. More. War.