How do I know?
What do I do?
I have been trained for what I’m going to go through.
I don’t have a clue,
Of what I might face.
When I jump from that plane and land in that place.
My feet hit the ground.
Instinct to fight.
I have to find my comrades in this inky black night.
Clicking I hear.
I know they are close.
Password is said, its my battalion I know.
Together we are.
Company true.
Working as one, for what we’re going through.
Bullets are singing.
Too close to my head.
At least now I know, enemy ahead.
All of my training,
Comes to the fore.
Stand alone together, like never before.
Some of us wounded.
Some of us fell.
Some of us completely escaped the death knell.
Those who came home.
Those who left the fight.
Never forgot that inky black night.
I’m now at my home.
Never forget.
Where my friends fell, at the hands of the threat.
I’m now at home.
My family grew.
Never quite knowing what I had suffered, been through.
There is an old saying.
One to do with war.
Never truer, never wrong, of that I swore.
“I went to war normal
But I came back changed. “
The thoughts in my head always unchanged.
I close my eyes.
I hear the fight.
I close my eyes and I’m back to that inky black night.
I close my eyes.
Faces I see.
My whole battalion is looking back at me.
I close my eyes.
Memories stir.
My friends and brothers, the way we were.
The years have passed.
Stories told.
Legacy shared to the generation of gold.
I was a changed man.
Upon my return.
I look at my family and the pleasures I’ve earned.
Rest now I’m able.
Pass the baton.
My legacy left to go on and on.
This poem was inspired this morning, after seeing a quote posted on social media. The quote was
“One cannot go to war and come back normal.”
The author was Richard Proulx. Infantryman. US Army.
Thank you, Peter Youngblood Hills for posting the quote and inspiring me.
