Stomps, marching, screaming, crying

Men who step up to fight along with boys lying.

Mothers tightly clutch desperately onto their sons and lovers,

Their daughters helplessly begging their brothers and fathers.

I watch silently as they take their leave,

To fight for our nation and protect us from an incurable grief.

I'm beyond furious for they denied my request,

My requests of protecting, our nation, our treasure chest.

Gripping the sheet that was to behold my destiny,

I fight a battle and place an identity.

For in my eyes fourteen is just as large as eighteen,

I'm going to fight for my country, I, Jaden Green.

Each step I take, my heart swells as I leave my broken momma behind,

I stare at the back of my Papa's head as we continue to strive.

No one knows what I have done yet, no one but my curious mind,

This sudden bravery, a hunger for an adventure where I learn to stay alive.

An identity is clasped around my neck, but I dismiss it for the true one lays in my heart,

All men turn around and say their farewells, I jump and wave and see my mother crumble,

She noticed and had broken apart to what I have took part,

in what I saw was a fresh new start.

I wear pride and swallow my cries, sit myself down next to a father I have lived by,

He acknowledges me, interests in me then dismisses me,

Completely oblivious to the fact that his son sits next to him.

The heat is intense, it attacks us through our uniform, and hits us as we walk

We were almost there, to our new home, but what I saw made me stop and gawk.

I didn't see a home,

The trenches made me feel robbed and alone.

We only got half a bottle of water per man per day,

and I made sure to put God ahead of me in every way.

Sleep was no longer an option,

The shrills kept me at caution.

We had any amount of biscuit and bully to eat,

but the food we were eating, was eating us alive.