If MaJoC the Filk had posted in this thread that might be germane. No one used that remark in this thread. ??

What you see as a "mistake" is simply the reading other parties give the poem.

A poem with gut-shot men in the background may have begun with a narrator reflecting on that earlier time, but the crucial events are in a time of war. We will have to agree to disagree if you think this isn't a war poem.