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Val Lovelace Poem
Notes to Veterans
Dear Veteran:
Year after year history fades, shifts, growing dimmer to our memories.
Yet a Warrior’s experiences keep fresh as just a moment ago.
Scars remain tender, losses held sacred and too often unspoken.
I know that a Warrior holds what many others cannot…or dare not.
And could you rest that down somewhere, even for a little while, I wonder would you ever?
Dear Veteran:
Perhaps you are still young, or maybe history has faded you too.
Your bones remember everything, though, don’t they?
Oh I bet you can still click your heels together, snap a fine salute, and
Bow your head to Old Glory when she waves on by,
Our fair anthem pounding in your heart and through your blood.
Dear Veteran:
Maybe “thanks” was never said to you for the service you gave;
Maybe it was a time when uniforms and what they meant simply fell out of favor;
Or maybe it was all flag-waving and soldier songs when you finally came home.
Some folks don’t understand service, and that ol’ trick that history plays with fading—
Well, it just can’t do much to ease the starch in a memoried uniform.
Dear Veteran:
Thank you for bucking up, shipping out, and screaming your war cry when it mattered most.
Thank you for all the times you missed home, or felt lost, or sore, or angry, or scared.
Thank you for your time, the cost to your soul, and the lifeblood of your ideals.
Oh yes, I know, it’s all in a day’s work; just doing your job; honor and duty and all that.
I question sometimes—do Warriors ever really taste of the Peace they represent to others?
Copyright © Val Lovelace | Year Posted 2016
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