First Edit: Why We Fight/Aging

[dukealien]

First Edit:

Aging

The easy way is dying first, before
you tell your only love to come to bed.
The way she faded worse than any war;
no valiant charge, just words you left unsaid.

There isn't glory in becoming old,
instead there's pity faked by callow ones
who smirk at every story you have told;
too young to see you've handed them your guns.

You try to warn about the wasted days,
of how they'll never love a better friend...
Your minutes slowly march beyond her gaze,
their minutes cruelly seem to have no end.

So you'll recall that night you held her hand,
a time those youth pretend to understand.

Truth to tell, I liked the previous title better - but since it now lacks referents beyond the first quatrain (even "guns" is more gunfighter than war, an individual rather than social activity) the title fits the edit.

I question the semicolon ending L7 - to me, it seems to require less of a break, more of a sigh.  An em-dash, perhaps?

The repetition of "minutes" in LL11-12 doesn't work well for me, though the specific reference back to the youths (and forward to the couplet) does clarify.

In general, the edit is an improvement in clarity; my reservations about it are personal, having committed to my odd decoding of the original version.  Good work.