Maybe my enemy enjoys a joke,

When seated round a table with his mates.

I can believe that he’s a decent bloke,

Except when the demand of war dictates.

 

Perhaps he likes his football at weekends;

His mother might still bring his cup of tea.

Yet now it’s captured land that he defends,

And if he’s ordered he will shoot at me.

 

Our paths may well have crossed when we were young,

If I had lived close to him as a boy;

We would have played as morning bell was rung

And fought over the same cheap childhood toy.

 

We could have lived next door and been best friends,

And sworn devotion in a blooded oath.

But in a battle soldiers meet their end;

One of us may succumb today. Or both.