It's not an easy thing to turn your back on the ones you love.956Please respect copyright.PENANANme751l1W4
They say it's something that cowards do, and they couldn't be more wrong.956Please respect copyright.PENANAKTWQAjFHi9
It's an act of courage. To overstep those boundaries of trust, to go against the irrationality of emotion for the greater good.956Please respect copyright.PENANAM9ouUWsjdY
I tell myself this as I walk down the road, fields passing by and their cries fading away, but it doesn't stop their tears from stinging more than mine.
Death awaits me in a carriage, with a uniform and a mustache. On his wrist, a watch that my family and I would never be able to afford with a lifetime of savings, counting down the hours until I die. It may be just twenty four. It may be over a thousand. Little metal hands clicking clockwise eternally, but eventually even their cold insides will rust and grind to a halt.956Please respect copyright.PENANAriW4eYjq2f
Some other boys who are joining with me seep slowly out of their houses. Their families, too, are saved.956Please respect copyright.PENANAYjXpJQW6Ey
Their friends, too, are condemned.956Please respect copyright.PENANAbzXz36RnmU
Solemn glares all round, no greetings or banter now. We've come to fight against our own country in return for our family's safety. 956Please respect copyright.PENANAi6w0gg5vER
They say that we are the spineless, but when you have to walk past the people that may die by the hands of the army you join, no one can say that we lacked the moral fiber to look them in the eyes.956Please respect copyright.PENANA1r1fIRC2wM
Eyes that scream, filth.956Please respect copyright.PENANAfVrAkGck1X
Down the road, a broken promise awaits.956Please respect copyright.PENANA4agUOGfK6Y
You said our families would be safe.956Please respect copyright.PENANAFp9ISCDgcT
But the watch hands keep ticking, the wheels keep rolling, and the lone hearts keep breaking, because since when was a coward's promise kept?