The Grim Reaper's Apprentice

The seeds of fellowship are planted
Every new bud, precious dreamers
In due season, they unravel their wild manes
Summer nights, we lay motionless
Gazing into the jewel encrusted sky
No worries, tomorrow we'll arise on our own accord
Our childish games by the babbling creeks
Mother nature's lullabies echoing all about

Decades have passed, I became the man you once knew
Watched the world's transformation
Fierce dragons gliding across oceans
The horrors of war, I know nothing about
Carnage, terrorism, my foolish rage grows
Seduced by the forked tongued merchant of death
He preaches freedom abroad
Enforcement of the greater good
Annihilate the conspirators, barbaric heathens
Send the rabid beasts to their graves

I charged through desolate pastures
Fire falling, mud splattering my boots
Aries strikes the first blow
Plowing his iron first into the earth
Limbs, entrails, blood and bone tossed about
Clinging to the dirt, bullets pattering like rain
Raised my rifle, peered down the sight
Squeezed the trigger, his life is mine
My friends, cut down in their prime
Left behind their frightened kin
Uttering their prayers through the night
My heart burns dreading every sun rise
Bombs away, behind the blood drenched dawn
Death looming closer and closer
Spewing forth led and fire

The day of my birth, cold rain falls
My muzzles flash, keeps me warm
Slaughter these animals
Stack their corpses high
What are we? Distant brothers
Pinned against each other with swollen pride
Machine guns bark, the youth fall face first
The strong survive, and the weak perish

Blood stains my diseased conscience
Filled to the brim with dark deeds
Demands made by the old and bitter
Carrying these burdens with me
On the long journey home.