By Bertha Reilly, World BEYOND War, November 3, 2020

November 11 1918

Why o why
O please tell me why
Did you stand in the trenches And wait to die?

When the man in charge Said “go over the top” Why didn’t you all
Say “Stop, stop, stop”?

With your feet in the mud Was your head in a cloud Or didn’t they tell you
You’d go home in a shroud?

And those folks back home And your children unborn And all of those millions Who were left to mourn

The boys that you killed And your friends who died Can you tell me now What was satisfied?

The people in charge. Had nothing to offer
But total destruction
Of those they called other.

How did they get you
To hate one another
When truly deep down
You were brother to brother?

Killing each other
Has no place on earth
How did you not see
That was not your true worth?

We have more in common As human beings
And all our divisions
Are not what they seem.