Double Tap
News broadcast:
Bad news from the Afghan front lines,
an Army lance corporal got killed
from Battalion 5, company 9
Soldier Bill James Medlark,
affectionately known as Billy the Kid
Saved countless service men and women lives,
with the tragically heroic thing he did ...
No one knows how many lives he may have saved,
when without hesitation, he dived on a live grenade
He sacrificed his life
for his merry band of sisters and brothers
He didn't think twice
about that small bomb he smothered
Now he won't get to hear his favorite military sounds;
Bugle revelry or banshee jumping
off a helicopter with boots hitting the ground
No, he won't get to hear that 21 gun salute,
or the dignified double tap to the heart and one to the cap
No, he'll no longer hear Pvt. McShay's Irish flute,
and the grunts owed Sgt. Bernstein has been more than paid back
No one knows how many lives he may have saved,
but there'll be lots of medals hanging on his tombstone grave
So, in case you were wondering,
in case you wanted to know
just exactly where do those dead military heroes go
Go down to Arlington Cemetery,
and see them lying row after row
But pray that you never see your name there though
*All names used were fictional
If anything in this poem bears resemblance to any real person or actual events, it is purely coincidental, and I express my deepest sympathy for
your loss
Copyright © Freddie Robinson Jr. | Year Posted 2016
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