I use my pen name for this poem ('The blue wattle')

We didn't ask 'what for'
Old mate,
we didn't ask 'what for!'
we just charged in loyally
to fight their 'bloody war.'
we were full of fire and grit
when we marched in to fight,
we didn't ask 'what for,' old mate,
we both just yelled 'ALRIGHT!'
The passion of our county burned
for friends who felt war's blow,
so when they needed help from us,
we raised our hands to go,
and though our loved ones cringed in fear,
we never paused to stay,
we were just like heroes mate,
as we both marched... away.
And neither of us wondered
' IF there was ANOTHER way?'
Who were we to question them
(those LEADERS of the day?)
But old mate,
looking back upon your distant grave;
I have to wonder at the cost
so many young men paid.
We didn't ask for 'other ways'
when they asked us 'to fight'
and now I'm having nightmares of
that battle...every night.
My mates around me blown to bits
they're in my memory,
along with parent's faces filled
with tears and agony
We went in unquestioning
and stormed Gallipoli,
and now the war I'm fighting is
the one inside of me.
I didn't ask 'what for' old mate,
and I returned alone,
perhaps I should
have asked it mate?
(if only I had known.)
That place they sent us to was wrong
(a bungle at its worst,)
like 'lambs to slaughter' lives were gone,
with you, one of the first.
Its Anzac day and I am old
but still I try to march,
no one sees you with me mate
as I hobble past,
but a day has not gone by
that we've been apart,
because I've kept you with me mate,
right here INSIDE my heart.
I 'was lucky' (so they say,)
I survived that war,
but every day since you were killed,
old mate, I ask...'what for?'
I've survived to battle on
beyond that Turkish shore
I'm alive but you are gone
so now...THAT is MY war.
I'm standing here at sunrise Mate
on one more Anzac morn,
I listen to a trumpet played,
tears drip on medals worn,
I glimpse the wide-eyed children mate,
they're puzzling at our WAR...
then I know it mate...the answer:..
THEY'RE the ones that I went FOR.


By 'The blue wattle.'