War Letters

[Sykonaut]

"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind." - John F. Kennedy

Dear Vietnamese Soldier,

I am trapped inside this scarlet letter and the night just broke to darker weather
As I walk my thin line of toxic treasure and take gold and dirt in proper measure
While playgrounds change to battlefields and I spray rounds like the cattle’s near
Graves mound without their gravel filled, below gray clouds forming sadder tears
I remember as a child when war was just a game captured within our imagination
Life's embers aren't as mild gore and blood now leave a stain and a burning village vacant
Death has no limitations we all get invitations destined but to wait in yearning timid patience
And sitting in this trench I know life cannot be death but you should see his imitation
Men cry out to god or someone in the solar system... Oh but silence is a vulgar prison
So just maybe putting holes in victims, or trading war for peace is just an ogre’s vision
And should be re-examined some and instead of people we could damage guns
Scrap the metal feed the famished ones and give the poor a chance to manage funds
But let me say I'm sorry and get this boulder off my soul cause the colder that I grow
Makes it hard to tell if the hand upon the holsters not my own, am I a soldier or a drone?
Right now my fingers locked around the trigger and I think its better that I pull it…
May you and god forgive me as I drank up all the liquor then mailed your letter on a bullet

Sincerely,
American Soldier




Dear American Soldier,

I received your letter yesterday, although right now I don't remember much
But there's got to be a better way to run this world that we're all members of
I was taken in the draft, wore hatred as a mask, as pain defines the limitations of a laugh
Now I've awakened in a cast, heard there was a bomb, and none escaped within the blast…
I don't hate you and never did, I just wish this dispute of ours was severed quick
If only I could find a lever, switch, or button to take war and make a clever switch
To a happy that would never end, ah... why is that the piper's dream?
Why do my wife and little boy cry enough to leave the wipers clean?
Ironic how I used to be an artist, painting steeples in my peaceful land
And now although I try my hardest I see but evil where the easel stands
So with a weapon in my feeble hands I’ve become another lowly legion number
As the battlefield forms lethal camps and shots stop the glowing demons slumber
But you and I are just the same, whether you're American or Vietnamese
When someone stops, starts taking aim, I know we both get weak at the knees
As bleak as it sometimes seems, there must be light at the tunnel's end
Beyond the strife of all this funneled sin, past this fight that we're all pummeled in
Spew the lies of all these guzzled trends, and truth will rise through subtle pens
From opened mouths of muzzled men, with songs of peace in supple hymns
If we could only step back from these borders to see there's only one Earth
Before we're just left as crumbs of grief hoarders that lost but won first
The cost of gun bursts, the loss of young' hurt, the sobs of unheard
God it's not worth, these plots of robbed dirt, let's stop and pop words
Instead of bullets, brother believe we are better than this blood shed
Before border battles bring bombs blasting from above head
We can make a stand, but we have to stand together
Be a beacon to our lands, I guess I've but to send this letter...

Regards,
Vietnamese Soldier

[Mr. J]

Psychonauts is an underrated game...fun, exciting & riveting...

[Sykonaut]

@Mr. J agreed