The poem reflects on how war has destroyed the narrator's home and relationships. It describes how the narrator used to walk through fields that are now destroyed, and call those who are now enemies "brother" and "friend". Though they once sang and danced together, their songs have now died, drowned in bloodshed instead of living in peace as brothers under the same sky. The arid land has become the narrator's new home, and those lost were not deserving of such a fate.