by Brian Benson

Created on: October 22, 2008

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY.....I GREW UP FAST

When I was a little boy
We played from dawn til dark
Chasing baseballs hit aloft
In our imaginary ball parks

Running fields to and fro
Shooting our toy guns
At imaginary enemies
We thought it was such fun

Playing baseball confident
One day we'd make the bigs
But never understanding
It was really one tough gig

Another gig was coming

For which we'd all been trained
From childhood unrealized
In our minds ingrained

Those childhood days so precious, few
No sooner had we grown
We're told of foreign enemies
And into war we're thrown

Young men from other countries
With dreams not unlike our own
We're thrust in mortal combat
In some distant hotzone

For what ? I asked so many times
This senseless loss of life
What did we gain in all those years
Of toil pain and strife

The years have passed and here we are
Our knowledge has increased
That now we send our daughters
To fight in the middle east

Before I pass I hope to see
A world in which there's peace
Where dead mens wars are distant thoughts
And higher goals we reach

Where sacredness of human life
And value of each soul
Of our precious sons and daughters
Their gift of life extol

When I was a little boy
Seems not so long ago
That graying hair and different eyes
Have not tarnished the glow

The dreaming of that better life
In which we don't destroy
The vision and the purpose
Of when I was a little boy

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