www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5lIeU3P9gs

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3szc53yb7J0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmD_s_N8tDQ

TheBeach

by Oscar Brown, Jr. (10/10/1926 -- 5/29/05)

And now I’ve landed on this beach,

it takes sixty odd years to reach,

as this generation of mine

is ordered onto 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 corps of elders who charged here before,

while we enjoyed our middle age,

removed from fire; we now engage.

A withering barrage breaks this beach.

It’s 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 or 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 every day 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 till you and I are hit,

as we inch onward bit by bit.

We only know our lives will bleach

eternally, out on this beach

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