World War 1

A war fought between two countries
sweeps the entire world.
Started in Austria-Hungary
and Serbia,
expands to every continent.
Nothing can stop it.
It is a World War.

Total War:
something people thought
they would never hear.
Yet, they experience it.
Men,
Women,
Children,
Husbands,
Wives,
Daughters,
Sons,
Parents,
Grandparents,
They all partake.

The cause not human,
but political and not solitary:
Nationalism,
Imperialism,
Militarism.
All factors that drove
people to do disastrous actions,
and plunge themselves into bloodshed.

Quick and easy
they thought.
They were wrong.
Millions of young men dead
on the warfront,
Millions more suffering and depleted
on the home front.

Women forced to work in factories,
and give up traditional roles.
Fish substituted for meat,
worse substituted for drink and condiments.
Clothing ragged,
Metals rare,
Waste recycled,
everything diminished.
Life as they knew it gone.

Men in trenches,
fresh out of the academy,
unprepared for the real truth.
Living in horrid conditions,
rats all around,
little food and water,
half-restful sleep,
waiting
to go into the next battle.

Living,
but not really living.
Always on alert
not knowing what comes next.
They live from one hour to the next,
knowing that any moment could be their last.

The home front supplies,
the warfront battles.
Nothing will ever be the same.
Driven by pride and fear,
outcome unknown,
the world’s people will always remember
the devastation
of the first World War.