Oscar Brown Jr.
This Beach
And now, I’ve landed on this beach
It takes sixty odd years to reach
As this generation of mine
is ordered on to life’s front line
The targets of a fusillade
that forces us to think of God

Reluctantly we storm this beach
Advancing to fill up the breach
Created by that fallen corp
Of elders who charged here before
While we enjoyed our middle age
We moved from fire, we now engage

A withering barrage rakes this beach
Its bullets bear the names of each
Of those who set foot on these sands
Old general calendar commands
Advancing to a sure defeat
Without The option to retreat

We knew, before we hit this beach
The enemy that we besiege
Has ammunition for us all
Who as casualties must fall
Not one will manage to survive
Nobody leaves this beach alive
For those arriving on this beach
There is no prayer to pray nor preach
To beg us off in any tongue
Since we’ve outlived dying young
And for surviving, in exchange
Now face the fire at point blank range

The witness we bear on this beach
Has only one lesson to teach
Here the carnage never stops
As everyday another drops
Some classmate, relative, or friend
Whose attack comes to abrupt end

So on into the breach my peers
Who knows how many weeks or years
Remain ‘til you and I are hit
As we inch onward bit by bit
We only know our lives will bleach
Eternally out on this beach