he came to me at 6 yrs old
he left me at 17
and though i didn't give birth to him
i was his mother just the same

a trembling child afraid to live
who liked to hide under his bed
it takes reflection over time
to understand the whys of when

he was afraid of his own thoughts
that whispered who he was
yet he loved stories of robin hood
and mutant teenage turtles

and how many times i was called
to claim him as he
beat on the bullys at school
he always felt it was his job
to protect the underdogs

at 8 i gave him a bb gun
and he discovered he had the eye
when he tired of shooting cans
i took him to the range

and why did i have the knowing
to introduce him to weapons
my house became filled with firearms
pistols, rifles, and shotguns

so not like me before nor after
and i know now, it came for him
my aim was sharp, as we fired on skeet
which encouraged him to be a marksman

i wasn't surprised when he
knocked on my door gave me a hug
and said he had enlisted
a solider is who he was

he writes a letter from southeast iraq
some desert camp not on a map
sitting inside his beige humvee
sheltered from the blowing sand

won't say where he's been
won't say what he's done
just to love him for who he is
from a boy to a soldier man



*blessings for all the soldiers who did / do walk the earth
as we remember them on memorial day