The Truth About Truth

There he stood - a soldier, really just a teen.
    He shared with us the ending of a soldier's dream.
He spoke so very softly, yet all of us heard
    The pain he must have felt in each and every word.

"We believed and were sure that we were in the right
    That is why we could put up such an awful fight,
And we had trusted (as you can surely now see)
    How hard it was to know that our General, Robert E Lee

"Had accepted the terms of surrender from General Grant
    It made us feel so small, like a little tiny ant,
It made us envy the fallen and especially the dead
    As the terms of surrender were so carefully read.

"As we took the piece of paper, putting our arms in place,
    We walked the road from Appamadox felling only disgrace.
There was no one to join us (like the two on the road to Emmaus)
    We felt like they must have felt, that someone had betrayed us.

"Who would answer those questions, so heavy on our heart?
    Who could put together our dreams now all blown apart?
Where can we find the wise man to solve our dreadful riddle,
    If there is only right and wrong with nothing in the middle

"Then what happens to the right (let me now repeat it)?
    Has the right become wrong whenever one is defeated?"

Written after a visit to Appomadox and hearing a dramatization of the event
by
Dr. Van