We won the war,

Announces our president,
Who stands in front of our country in a pressed suit
And dares to recount the victory without remembering the lives spent.
His only thanks is conveyed in a single salute.

We won the war,
Mutters the bagger at the grocery store,
Whose father was shipped to Europe where he died.
Who had to learn the truth of war when he was just four,
And ever since then he knew that war had no winning side.

We won the war,
Whispers the wife
To the grave of her husband who never made it passed the beaches.
One day she’ll explain to her children that freedom comes at the cost of life,
And that the only good that comes from war are the lessons that it teaches.

We won the war,
Slurs the father,
As he buries his only two sons, with a bottle still clasped in his hands.
What the president calls a victory he knows is a slaughter,
And his sons were the ones gives up as lambs.

We won the war,
Hisses the soldier,
Who had to leave his bleeding brothers behind,
Who knows that hearing we won offers the families no closure,
But only serves to keep the pain fresh in our minds.

We say we won the war,
But we don’t talk about the cost that it called for.
We keep saying that we won,
But the battle at home has just begun.