He Returned Home From the War

(Revised) 

He returned home from the war, but he did not stay,
For he returns to the war that he must fight every day;
He keeps in silence the torments that rage inside
As they are tethered to the horrors that he must hide.

He returned home from the war, but still in his mind
Are the acts of destruction so vividly defined.
O’, there is no more reality, for hell has taken its toll
From the wages of a war that now burdens his soul!

He abandoned the war for a tranquil home,
But onto the battlefield he returns to roam;
And within his mind the fallen have come to retire
As languishing ghosts from the smoke and the fire.

He now suffers the despair that has come forth to define
The images of war that rage in his mind;
He hears the voices each night from the darkness inside
That resound from the horrors that he must hide.

He returned home from the war, but only to find,
The ghosts of a war that now lurk in his mind.
He does not speak of these things that haunt inside,
So he endures the anguish that he must hide.

He returned home from the war, but he cannot escape,
And he’s become an effigy with a monstrous shape,
O’ he hates the regrets; he hates what lingers inside
Where the torments of war shall forever reside!

Copyright © | Year Posted 2015



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Date: 1/1/2018 12:06:00 AM
This is a great poem Robert, thank you for sharing, my husband is a Vietnam Vet so we can relate to that, by the way He is a poet on this site if you care to look him up his name is Peter Duggan, he is a great poet, I am sure you will like his work. take care......Vera
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Mccallum Avatar
R. L. Mccallum
Date: 1/1/2018 11:38:00 AM
Thank you, Vera. I will read some of your husband's poems. I love to see a fellow veteran involved in the art of poetry. It's helped me through some difficult times.
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