Hero-International Brigade

Blood,
Or a flag, 
Or a flame 
Or life itself
Are they the same: 
Our dream?
     I came.
An ocean in-between
And half a continent.
Frontiers,
And mountains skyline tall,
And governments that told me NO, 
YOU CANNOT GO!
     I came.
On tomorrow's bright frontiers 
I placed the strength and wisdom
Of my years. 
Not much,
For I am young. 
(Was young,
Perhaps it's better said— 
For now I'm dead.)

But had I lived four score and ten
Life could not've had
A better end.
I've given what I wished 
And what I had to give 
That others live.
And when the bullets
Cut my heart away,
And the blood
Gushed to my throat
I wondered if it were blood
Cushing there.
Or a red flame? 
Or just my death 
Turned into life? 
They're all the same: 
Our dream! 
     My death!
     Your life! 
     Our blood!
     One flame!
'They're all the same!