Villanelle For Doomed Youth

It was at Christmas that he left for good
The Pinyon pines, drafted for Vietnam,
For a strange country and a darker wood.

And now his grandson proves his own manhood,
If this is what it is to be a man.
It was at Christmas that he left for good

To do what his dear country felt he should
For Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan,
For a strange country and a darker wood,

Crossed valleys of tears, rivers of blood,
Heard the cries of the children of Islam.
It was at Christmas that he left for good,

Killing from fear, and just because he could,
Not that self-sacrifice had been the plan
For a strange country and a darker wood,

Where bone fragments and deadly missiles scud.
How to survive he thought he'd understood.
It was at Christmas that he left for good
For a strange country and a darker wood.