PAD challenge day 11

Wrote this Robert Brewer's Poetic Asides poem a day challenge. Could not post there; glad I still have the blog.

Prompt is to write a poem from the perspective of a soldier.

A New Objective

The War changed me;
It changed us all.
I left to fight a foreign monster,
But we were commended
For defeating a national depression
Long after or return.
As we prepared for the trenches
Of Korea and Nam
(Conveniently in the trough),
The same hopes hung
On the thousands of waving hands;
The same hands that bought
Into this mess, but not into the War,
That bought and sold the guns,
But never had to fire a shot.
And on or return,
There were no galas,
No parades for our sacrifice
During these conflicts-
It cost too much.