A Nation Divided Poem

A nation divided

A view from a discouraged rebel

Dawn breaks the morning skies

Creeping along bloody lane

The world mocks us with these mornings filled with beauty,

These precious moments in the midst of chaos and gore

Another battle is fought

Another man down

In the end is it worth it?

Only time will tell

Because that number, that thousands of casualties

From only one battle

keeps climbing

I guess we we are all crazy in the end

To kill others over pride and a sickening sense of justice

As if we know what human life is worth

It only ends in death and destruction

Were the slaves really worth fighting for?

I will fight for my way of life but after Pickett's charge at Gettysburg again I ask

Is it worth it?

When we prove our loyalty we lose our conscience

When we are attacked by all 75,000 and still no side lets up

Is it worth it?

Sherman’s march will be the end to all our soldiers wearing red

They now wear grey

the color of death

The death of a way of life

An ideology

An identity

So next time a war is fought

We need to ask ourselves

Is it worth it?

Because with the fall of Georgia I am not seeing much joy, much laughter, much fun

Slaves are hurt instead of saved and children are dying oh so much pain

I implore you to look when you are outnumbered just like we were- ask yourself

Was it worth it?

We killed our economy, our loyalty, our infrastructure, our brothers all in just 5 years

I will never see eye to eye with our border sharing brothers northward

But I now understand what I lose when I fight for what I believe

next time I will look ahead to check the cost

Because when I see the grief i’ve caused to sobbing widows and anguished mothers

I know that I did this

And it is something I can never undo

Authors note *** I know that not many southerners thought like this at the closing of the war but I thought it would be cool to see these internal reflections of them since I was assigned to be a fed. I hope it gave you insight. Thanks