The minds of men

It’s funny what drives men to war when we are all essentially the same.  Black and white, north and south, all the same.  Many would say the world isn’t black and white, and they  are all correct.  The world is one vast and ever changing medly of shades of grey, but all part of the same cloth.  Yet here I stand, surrounded, bombarded and trapped by my sense of duty.  My brothers fall around me and their brothers bring death upon them.  The ring of steel and the cannon boom.  The sharp smell of black powder and the bitter smell of burning hair and canvas.  But still we fight.  Reload, fire, fight.  Reload, fire, fight again and again.  We fight for a greater cause, we fight for freedom and justice.  A cause that united us all.  We lay down our lives all for one cause.  It is rather impressive when you think about it.  

A man tall and lanky man with faraway eyes suddenly stopped, looking down to the bayonett protruding from his chest.  Eyes dim with realization, he looked back up to meet the eyes of a gaunt young man no older than his own son.  The boys eyes were red and brimming, his sould tearing as he took another life.  Smiling lazily, the lanky man fell back, the soft ring of the metal leaving his body twining through his touseled hair.  

My sweet daughters, my son, my wife…  My greatest loves.  He thoought softly, his head striking the hard ground of the field.  Dust rose gently around his body, the grass moist beneath his head.  He felt the cannon blasts pound his chest.  The cries of battle rung through his ears, but still he smiled.  This is what i have been fighting for…  I am finally free.  His hands went slack, his eyes grew glassy, his final breath sighed through his chest and warmed his stilling heart.  The cannons boomed and darkness took him.  No light, no pearly gates. Only blissful, peaceful, unending and untarnished darkness.