Five Ribbons For Joe

 Five campaign ribbons and two shiny stars

Small but subtle reminders of a life once afar.

Oak leaf clusters and one Purple Heart

Reflect the bitter memories of carnage a world apart.

Ode to burnt bodies, ode to gapping wound

Ode to hollow victory with a shattered soul consumed.

So pray for him as you walk past him tonight

And try to give him due honor and subdue not his pride.

For he was just following orders, in his reason to search and destroy,

Heck, he was not even yet a man, no... not much more than a boy.

Yet, he fought on…so that many should be free,

And in doing so, he destroyed more than our mortal eye can see....

However, time is as time does, for it creeps like an invisible vine.

It leaves minute impressions in the depths of a tortured mind.

For he still fights the enemy within his volatile dreams

And from jungle to alley, five campaign ribbons does he cleave.

J. Allen Wilson © 2005