Only 19,
Sent into battle,
Seeing things never seen,
Wanting to cry out,
His friend had vanished,
And so had his courage,
He was being surrounded,
His fellows were dead around him,
Yet he fills his head with hope,
He fires again and again,
Without knowledge if it made contact.

Maybe there is hope for him,






Though chances still low,

He's shot in the leg and arm,
He goes down,
Fearing that he will die here,
Now wailing and bleeding he fires again,
And again, and again.

Abruptly, the shooting seized,
Was he dead,
He looked around,
Enemy fallen,
All dead,
He couldn't tell the enemy from his falling comrades,
All torn to pieces.

And then his words,
'I will fight for my country again and again,
To bring down these oppressors,
My country is free and alive and that is all for that I strive,
Let my country's flags of freedom fly.'

Currently home,
Now he sits,
Scar on arm and leg,
Thinking,
Studying,
Wondering,

T.V. on,
He listens,
Looks.

Nothing like it,
Showing nothing what he saw,
His comrades devoid of legs and arms,
No comparison,
Feeling Death's embrace,
The icy, cold fingers,
In those final seconds.

Yet those words,
His words,
But said without perception,
Just then he knew,
God had been there,
Had spoken for him,
God's words had said his mind,
His whole mind at that moment was on his country.

A prodigal son,
A hope,
A miracle.
It takes a soldier.
It makes a soldier.
It wakes a soldier.

As of now he travels,
Day to day,
Country to country,
Conversing,
Teaching,
Working,
Telling how it was like,
Like a horror movie yet worse.

When he was there,
His family was his comrades,
And then to see their limbs torn off,
Thrown like rag dolls,
Their bodies ripped open,
A corpse blown in half,
A rocket obliterate,
A shell diminish,
The debris and waste strewn across the ground,
The gut wrenching sight and smell of lifeless companions,
Fallen in battle.

He speaks,
He tells,
He tries,
Fighting back tears,
Thinking of that day,
And others before it,

Now he speaks regarding it,
To fellow marines,
Now 30,
He has seen things.

He has seen a lifetime.