When Heroes Return

 

When Heroes Return

When walking wounded, limping home,

Bring battles they must face alone,

They wrestle wars that never cease,

Denied the calm of inner peace.

 

Battle-scarred soldiers, torn and maimed,

By fate and war’s cruel hand reclaimed,

Now climb new mountains, steep and high,

With shattered hearts that will not die.

 

They fight with demons none can see,

Their minds ensnared in memory,

Shellshock whispers through the years,

Reviving pain, regret, and tears.

 

Disfigured faces, twisted skin,

Hide courage fierce that burns within,

And families, trembling, hold them near,

Relieved their heroes reappeared.

 

But who can truly comprehend,

The torment they must still defend?

With scars that etch their very core,

They fight the fight forevermore.

 

For comrades lost, their spirits ache,

Each breath another debt to take,

Their haunted dreams replay the cries,

Of those who fell before their eyes.

 

Each sudden sound, each fleeting spark,

Can plunge their souls again to dark,

Still living poised on fragile thread,

Between the living and the dead.

 

Each night repeats confusion’s call,

Their shadows dancing on the wall,

They lash at ghosts that never fade,

By their own memories betrayed.

 

No peace awaits their weary mind,

The war within is not confined,

It lingers long, through every year,

A whispered voice they still can hear.

 

And those who’ve never borne the fight,

Who preach of wrong and speak of right,

Know nothing of the price they’ve paid,

Or how their souls were torn and flayed.

 

While generals marked their tidy lines,

And strategized in ordered signs,

The soldiers bled for freedom’s name,

Their lives consumed by duty’s flame.

 

So, when you see the lost, the burned,

In cardboard homes where hope has turned,

Remember—though their war is done,

The heroes’ peace has not begun.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)

The Wicked Spell of Death

 

The Wicked Spell of Death

 The mourning bell, its sorrowed chime,

Resounds through grief, defying time.

In shadowed halls, the silence weeps,

Where memory stirs, and anguish sleeps.

 

Each tear that falls, a soul’s lament,

For love now lost, for life once spent.

Through shrouded air, the dirges swell,

Caught within death’s wicked spell.

 

The candles tremble, the mourners pray,

Their trembling lips know not what to say.

They reach for those they’ll touch no more,

Whose laughter fades to the ocean’s roar.

 

Why must the kind, the innocent die?

Their names ascend on a broken sky.

Time halts its breath — the heartbeats cease,

And war devours the dream of peace.

 

The thunder sounds of hatred’s hymn,

A hollow cheer for the reaper grim.

The land once promised now runs red,

With echoes of the newly dead.

 

Each soul a pendulum, swinging low,

Counting the seconds before they go.

Shell-shocked hearts in ruin stand,

Cradled by fate’s unsteady hand.

 

The open caskets gaze, unblinking,

Upon a world too numb for thinking.

Widows draped in sorrow’s black,

Carry their love, and never look back.

 

Through every screen, the world bears witness,

To war’s obscene, unholy sickness.

A madness born from hearts of stone,

Where mercy dies, and truth’s unknown.

 

The treaties torn, the vows betrayed,

The cost of peace too long delayed.

So much love to the grave has gone,

While tyrants cheer what they’ve undone.

 

We reach for spirits, shades in flight,

Who vanish into the endless night.

Brave souls of Ukraine, steadfast, true,

The world remembers — it owes to you.

 

Time marches on with weary tread,

Through haunted streets of grief and dread.

Each child once laughing, bright, and small,

Now silent ghosts — they haunt us all.

 

Their dreams lie buried in the loam,

While doves of mourning guide them home.

And still, the world turns half-aware,

Averted eyes, a vacant stare.

 

The victims wait in whispered prayer,

Their hope dissolving in the air.

And still, more precious lives decline,

While warlords cross the sacred line.

Written By: Alan.Clark@WW1POET (Oct 2025)