Under Foreign Skies

Imagine what’s at stake, a young person leaving the comfort of home. Not yet an adult, yet they have to learn to be quicker than they were born and leave town to life under foreign skies, scared whether they will survive.

Under Foreign Skies

I leave for my journey
Nothing else to do
Just a boy at heart
Scared of the truth
Frightened of death

The youngest in my unit
I guess I’m a man
Working hard to keep up
I cry myself to sleep
Thoughts of what to expect

So alone
Always missing home
Can I show
How I have grown
Will I survive
Please can I come home

Posted to the zone
So dangerous and cold
Nothing did prepare me
For the death and desperation
The hate and corruption

Face to face
It is hard not to cry
My life is in the balance
So I pull and shut my eyes
Under foreign skies

So alone
Always missing home
Why do I cry so much
I hate this place
I want to leave today
Please can I come home

The months go by
I nearly lose my life
More than several times
But I’m stronger now
I am older too

I see the young boys
Arriving terrified
Will they lose their lives
Or learn to fight
Only time will tell

So alone
Always missing home
Yet I have to stay
There is no better place
At least I am needed here
I have no fear

I’ve done my time
Fought off every kind
I have saved some lives
And ended more
This is not my war

I am going home
I am walking proud
But there is part of me
That hates what I’ve done
Can I live with that
There is no losing that

So alone
I have to go home
Why do I feel so bad
Those lives I took
Just part of my job
Will this ever stop
It has to stop
Will this ever stop

Robert M Petrie ©