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i wrote this poem my sophomore year of high school. it was an English assignent relating to the book All Quiet on the Western Front.


I lie here in this shell hole
For an eternity it seems
I dare not poke my head out
Because enemy bullets will pierce through me
So here I lie inside this hole
The minutes seem like hours
A giant bomb goes off nearby
The sound causes me to cower
Later on I raise my head
I think I hear the sound
Of enemy troops approaching
Their footsteps on the ground
I lie there still and scared
Pretending I am dead
Then an enemy troop falls on me
I stab him and believe he's dead
His constant gurgling tells me he is not
It tells me he's still alive
So I just sit there and watch him
And pray that he'll soon die
So I sit there and watch him
And still, he does not die
I wish I had a gun to shoot him
To end his painful life
Then finally that afternoon
There is a silence that's so good
The enemy troop had finally died
The cause was loss of blood
But now I want the gurgling back
I want him to be alive
If only he did not fall on me
That night he would've survived
I go to look at his wallet
And to my horror there I find
Pictures of his wife and child
Whom he left behind
Now the guilt sweeps over me
And quickly brings me to tears
The fact that I have killed this man
Will now haunt me for years