Hero

• da-cheese-freakk

  14 Oct 09, 23:23

  When I used to visit, we’d play by the pool

  With blue gleaming drops – crystalline cool –

  Embracing our foots as we splashed and we laughed:

  Teen against child (lucky and daft)

   

  When I used to visit, we’d walk in the mall

  Your arms stretched across its brightly lit halls,

  Fountains, you’d note, and libraries too

  I’d watched enraptured, cheeks dabbed with hue –

   

  Once when I visit, aunt pulled me aside:

  “Your cousin is busy, hear now and abide –

  Five days a week, maybe holidays too

  He’ll serve in the army: there’s no time for you.”

   

  Sweat gushing as you limped to a side;

  Blank pupils as you’d press back – you’d hide –

  The thoughts contorting within that dark mind

  When you’d search for an answer unable to find

   

  Its way to the surface. And

  Each day you’d think of home from your base -

  Of your sweet girlfriend and life in those days

  Untainted by sorrow, free from this haze

   

  Of blinding thought-

   

   

  You won’t get a medal, you “aren’t that good”

  Two years of slopping around in the mud

  For the sake of the country, for the sake of us all

  Yet who will notice when you stumble and fall?

   

  You aren’t noble, ‘cause you were forced

  To join the army, to cry yourself hoarse.

  You didn’t sacrifice, ‘cause who will care

  for the hidden bruises and burdens you bear?

   

  Now when I visit, I silently stare

  At the hero braiding his young sister’s hair

  And the others around me: my friends and my peers

  Bracing themselves to face all their fears

   

  For the sake of the country, or perhaps the law

  Who cares? They’re still heroes, after all.

   

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  any reviews :)