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To a Veteran

Thank you for your faith In the country you so love That you’d offer up your life In a cataclysmic strife. Thank you for your courage Although you shook inside. You did all that was needed No matter what the price. The noise of guns and mortar Convulsed the fetid air You saw beloved comrades Lie bleeding at your side. You suffered pain and conflict When required to kill another Against what you’d been taught, To love, not hate, your brother. We call you strong and brave, And admire your fortitude. But the toll that it has taken Is in your mind and soul. To kill for love of country And the freedoms we possess Takes strength we can’t imagine And thanks are not enough.

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Paulette Calasibetta

Date: 7/8/2023 4:57:00 AM

Barbara, your poems are so heartfelt and pay so much tribute to those who served our country and lost their lives so we could live in freedom. Thank You! Paulette

Robert L. Hinshaw

Date: 8/27/2021 1:02:00 PM

A wonderful tribute to Vets, Barbara! Very insightful indeed - Bob H

Barbara Peckham
Date: 8/27/2021 8:20:00 PM

We can never know, if we haven't been there, how deeply it must affect servicemen for the rest of their lives. I think not only about those who lost their lives, but of the many who suffered terrible wounds to bodies and soul

Rico Leffanta

Date: 8/27/2021 11:58:00 AM

I fav'd this one and hope they include it in their anthology! Too bad young people today can not meet veterans of the Bataan Death March . . . .

Barbara Peckham
Date: 8/27/2021 8:19:00 PM

Thanks so much, Rico. As I said in another comment.it brings me back to the coda in my trilogy, "Letter to a Soldier." Heartbreaking!

L Milton Hankins

Date: 8/26/2021 9:28:00 PM

Indeed, they are not, Barbara. I was thinking today of the young people killed at the gate of Kabul airport. They thought they were coming home soon, but now....they will come home only in a government box. So heart-rendingly sad! None of them thought it would come to this.

Barbara Peckham
Date: 8/27/2021 8:22:00 PM

I thought I just replied to this, but, as often happens to me, it seems to have disappeared. Maybe it will come up twice! I was thinking of those in Afghanistan, those twelve killed and the others wounded and just as they were to come home. Heartbreaking! Makes me hark back to the coda in my trilogy "Letter to a Soldier."