It hit him sometime after
His commander gave the order
To go over the top
And it hit him sometime before
The bullets did
What hit him was the realization
That life isn't always fair


---


Flashback to one month earlier
It was two weeks after receiving notice
That he was to be conscripted
It was the last night he spent with his wife

It was the first time they cried
While making love
For he somehow knew
It would be the last time

It was not however the first time
He held her and didn't sleep all night
Lying next to her and reminding himself
While staring at her in the dark
Just how blessed he really was
He had done it often actually
Though that night it felt different...

Fast forward
Men dressed up in military uniforms
Boarded a train behind him
He was about to say
His last few words with his wife

He knew it wouldn't be enough
To say just anything
He leaned close to her to whisper
He said softly-


---



Torn out of the dream
By a sharp pain in his leg
Blood erupting from the wound
Like an angry volcano

The bullet went all the way through
He lay in the mud
Which also filled the wound

He stared up into a smoke-filled sky
The noise that filled his ears next
In a sad way made him happy
Even though tears now soaked his face

That unmistakable whine
Of an approaching artillery shell
Meant a quick death








His wife received the news several weeks later
She didn't know what to think
Or how to react
She drifted through the day
Telling herself it wasn't true

It hit her sometime
After she hit the bed that night
It hit her like an artillery shell
Life isn't always fair

Emotions leaking out of her uncontrollably
She slept on his side of the bed that night
Buried her face in his pillow
And wept endlessly
Remembering the last time he lay there

That night she dreamed
Of the last time she saw him
Before he disappeared into the crowded train
Their parting words

He leaned close to her to whisper
He said softly,

"Life isn't always fair
It claims us all in due time
What makes it worth the while
Is finding a souvenir
To take with you afterward
That one thing that completes
And makes heaven perfect

I've led a good life
I've found you
I'm not letting go"



And then he left




How sad it is
To cry even in a dream...

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