From the trenches he heard the blast
of bombs booming in the near distance,
saw the heavy clump of black smoke
twisting like a tornado;
and thought of life back home:
a wife and kids full of love and concern.

It was once the picture of the perfect life-
the dog bathed on Sunday mornings,
the pop-corned ice cream visits to the park
by evening. But now, as he huddled there
under the raised mount of protection,
he looks around at the new family:
hard-faced men dressed
in heavily-clad war drab,
holding cold, hard metal, firing;
ready to die yet hoping, remembering
the family they left back home.

Nicholas Damion Alexander

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-trenches-4/