Overseas assignments can be dangerous and exhausting ... especially in a war zone.
Uncertain Way
He walks, wary, the
Uncertain Way. Eyes down,
searching every stray mark, every
misplaced pebble.
One mistake could mean
horrible death.
He'd rather be home.
The team crouches, hearing
whispers of death in thudding dust and
popping concrete, searching for
the shooter's domain. Fighting in
impossible conditions against an
invisible enemy.
They'd rather be home.
She adjusts the torque,
dropping perilously low in
a hot LZ, with hot lead served up
in generous proportions.
With the wounded aboard,
she lifts away.
She'd rather be home.
Controlled chaos,
he strives against time, in
heroic attempts to stem the flow.
Splattered with blood, and
spittle and
a whispered prayer,
He'd rather be home.
They don't choose to be there,
facing death every day, striving to keep
an uneasy peace. They
do not want to kill anyone,
they simply desire the
safety of home.
The face of war has
changed today; the enemy hides
in the teeming crowd.
He wears no uniform, to
tell him apart, his only demeanor
a murderous heart.
When you see a soldier, give
him your hand, thank him
profusely for his sacrifice.
It is for you that he walks
the uncertain way, because,
believe me, Brother,
he'd rather be home.
Another reason why we shouldn't go there in the first place. Unless we are prepared to annihilate entire countries and their people, we should not go into foreign lands and attempt to keep the peace and try to separate good from bad when we can't tell the difference. Much better to support good against the bad and leave it at that.
Mushroom Cloud, a fact-based historical novel, is the first book of The First Strike Trilogy: USA and the Soviet Union are building nuclear arms for a face off in a potential nuclear war in the late 1950's and early 1960's.
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Regis
A brutally honest and touching poem.
Ron