Veteran's Day Poem

Wow, I haven't blogged since June.  Probably because I really haven't gotten past Sick and Crabby. But today I share a poem I've written.  I apologize as Blogger probably won't keep my spacing and indentations.

I am responsible for the Daily Reflections at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital that show up on our intranet and as an email "sent out" by the CEO.  I searched for way too long yesterday for something for Veteran's Day.  Unsatisfied, I wrote this to post.  Perhaps others will find some positive qualities about it.  Thank you especially, big brothers Pete and Nick.

Veteran's Day Poem by Magdalyn Sebastian, November 10, 2012.

Old men in faded uniforms that strain at their buttons,

marching proudly in scattered formation down Main Streets

and gathering at VFW’s to share with comrades,

silently or in whispered story

what they cannot share with anyone else.

Young women in camouflage pants and dust colored T-shirts,

remembering home and sweet hearts and

what life used to be before they were deployed,

stationed in a land as different from home 

as any could imagine, only hotter.

 

A newly elected Congresswoman,

in stylish skirt and beaming smile,

marching across a stage

on prosthetic legs and feet.

Proudly served, proudly serving.

Men who left home as boys

who most often worried about

X-boxes and girls 

or how to stay away from gangs and drugs.

Now different, never the same and yet the same.

For every generation of warriors

we remember the valor and willingness

to serve in ways we would not.

We pray to remember as well

to honor each one who took the uniform

with passionate work for peace.