To see you here, my darling boy,
my beloved child, my sweetest joy–
to see you here makes me sick.
And yet I smile when you speak to me
from within your metal tomb.
And I smile when the neighbors say
you’ll save the nation from its doom.
I smile for every time you shout
that you’re going to make us proud.
Smile even as the neighbors
sing their war songs all too loud.
Because to see you here, in all your might,
in all your bloodshed, a fearsome sight,
may be the last time I see you at all.
© Palace of Nero (palaceofnero.com)