Useless greed that hurts

There was once a small
Lonely and joyous village
Whose inhabitants lived
Carefree and peacefully.

The smiths made jewelry,
The potters made pots,
The children played and ran;
Everyone was happy and going about.

The trees with their beautiful leaves
Started making Autumn noticed
Their fiery leaves seen by all
Caused the villagers to gasp in surprise

Alas, like all happiness
It had to end.
So came a proud officer
Wearing a shiny coat.

He told the villagers to go to war
To the east of the village
The officer said he would give them their money
Only when the war was done.

The villagers had a feeling
They had never known
It was slick and sly greed
The men's eyes only saw gold.

Sure of their victory,
They all felt happy, not grim
Gathering every man fit to fight
They had not a clue of what was awaiting them.

They told the shiny-coat officer
That they'd go to war if they got their pay
The officer kept his word, but,
For three weeks doom hung over the village

Without extra help, crops withered
Food was scarce so children starved
The women pleaded to the officer to send back some men
Being an officer he told the women the truth

These men cannot come for they have all died
Bravely on the battlefield
The women mourned for twelve days and nights
As morning came, two thoughts wormed into their minds

They would never see
Those courageous men again,
Secondly, that the gold would never be theirs.
It was a lesson well learned...