Dearest Beloved

Dearest Beloved,

There are days I want to die.

Days I wish you’d notice,

There are days I don’t want to try;

And foreign to those I'm closest.

There are days I wish you’d ask;

Days I live to crash.

How could I tell you anything,

When peace and death are my play-thing.

Where I cannot rest on linen;

I long to sleep in the war again.

There I slept like a baby,

Do you know this drives me crazy?

Twenty years ago and yesterday.

Should I, or should I not say,

I am earth and my thoughts clay;

And I know it shouldn't be this way.

I am war, and the war I.

My mind beyond the ability to cry.

I sit and smile at the ghost behind you;

He is real and his friends few.

Pain can be a penance,

On days where I can't form a sentence.

But I am honored to keep you.

You are all that is good and true.

So when you see me say little,

A whole day mute with the sun.

Honor a soul that is brittle;

Remember you and I are one.

One kind word, one kind act.

It will be heard, I will react.

In that moment you honor me;

Unforgotten will be our legacy.

Sincerely,

Your Veteran