Another Year gone by. A tough and difficult year.
Heidi and I lost a small fortune... a big fortune for us... getting out from under that house... My Step Father, an Old Soldier, passed just a few days before Memorial Day last year... We endured our own, personal, separation last summer... It's been a three steps forward, two steps back sort of time...
Many Days, I think... "Damn! Why does it need to be this hard?"... Like many folks... I get down... I get tired... I get weary... and I want to quit... but I can't. To do so, would be to Dishonor those men... Who endured so much more... and whose sacrifices were so much more painful... and...
...Were those men... Who NEVER, EVER... Quit. They kept going...
When the fear choked them... They Kept Going... When the grief and horror brutalized their souls... They Kept Going... When they knew... it would be their last day... They Kept Going.
They... Kept... Going...
How can I... How can We... Do any less?
I wrote this some time ago... A friend I showed it to told me I should share it... Maybe this is the time... Maybe it will give some sense of how a lot of Old Soldiers see the world around them... and the true price of our Freedom.
The Beast Arrives Today
They crouch alone in a muddy hole
Surrounded by a shattered and smoking earth
Waiting on a Brutal Beast
They hold their rifles in iron grips
Silently Peering into the dark
The word is out...
The Beast arrives today
These warriors scared, fear death as any man
They'd choose, if they could
To put it off to another day
But, the oath they took
and the Honor that drives their Souls
Holds them still and silent
They ache to go, to leave this place
But, running just ain't their way
The breaking dawn reveals a fearful beast
Scared men of iron rise from their holes
With Fear in their chests and Rage in their eyes
Courage carries them forward
To scream their final battle cry...
The Battle rages fierce
Warriors fight and fall
Their Hearts lay shattered on the smoking field
Their bodies torn and broken
The Beast consumes their souls
Many years come and go
The old soldiers' eyes snap open in the dark
His chest pounding, the echoes of screams, the stench of fear
But he lays in a silent room... his wife breathing by his side
It's only the Beast... as another dawn arrives
He survived that final battle so many years ago
A choked back sob is the only sound
In his Soul The war rages on
He crouches in a hole waiting on a brutal beast
... and fears each coming dawn
Take Good Care
Brian
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1 comment:
Thank you Brian for sharing that with us. I know that my family and I are always grateful to those men who stood up for our freedoms. There is so much truth in the words, "Freedom ain't free". Many people today take it for granted and believe that it should be their right to have it. Well, someone paid for it for you. You should be grateful to that person whomever they may be. Hope you and Heidi have a peaceful Memorial Day.
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