On watching Cadets become Officers

I cannot help but feel they are young.
Handsome, strong, but so young.
Will such boys and girls as these march?
Will they command, fly, and crawl?
They call out cadence, so sure and determined.
A youthful call to battle and duty,
So terrifying and wonderful.
Children playing tag are unafraid of falling.
Their strength is unending. Their shadows race to catch them.
I see them tall and pointing toward horizons
I hear them singing songs to honor their fathers
Strange – I cannot see them dying.
Too full of life and raw blood, these young cadets.
To me, though I am not yet old myself,
They seem so young to fight,
Yet not too young to believe
The fight to come will mean something different
When they are older.