Originally published in Planet Magazine No. 34 (June 2002).
I never asked for a reason
Why man should kill his fellow man,
In darkness high above its hunting season,
for lessons of the ancients we forgot again
so much for guts and glory,
the distant stars don’t care
I fight to tell the story of war in empty hell,
I wait for launch orders, and sail into the night
to lead excited soldiers so eager for a fight,
let’s go and fry the bastards,
whose faces we’ll never see,
let’s show them who’s the master
in greatest of sins,
The laser’s shiny spears
will slice through their skin,
and their blood will boil,
releasing soul within
Drink toast to dead enemies,
they teach you something new,
And lessons in academy
sometimes won’t work for you,
We are living for the moment,
and some of us will die,
We have chosen our destiny
the day we learnt to fly.
Poem copyright 2002 by David Crane
Illustration copyright 2002 by Georgi Ostashov
