War Changes a Man

I remember you wanted to forget.

You wanted to be invisible

to the prying eyes of your past,

Dismembering your skeletons

with Hulk Smash fists

and Superman Strength.

A childhood only recalled

in dreamless slumber,

because you never voiced it

until it was ripped from your chest

like the bullets from your heart;

You would have said not to cry,

sighed and walked away

limp cigarette between your lips,

Only to go cry by yourself, unseen.

I remember at first you were angry.

You were livid,

disgusted with the government officials

you screamed that you would never leave

you would never go,

that you couldn't handle seeing

so much death.

You wrote letters everyday,

my mailbox was a songbird

that I freed every afternoon;

You're letters changed like your voice,

you were a man then

no more silly games you said,

you said, "This is war."

I remember the burial ceremony.

Flag draped Casket carried by your friends

every man with bone dry faces,

I read your last letter aloud,

heart shattering with every word,

"War changes a boy, it changes a man.

It fills you with a love that can't break,

A love for life,

A love for being a savior.

War makes ya love.

And I love war,

even if I can no longer love myself

for being a part of it."