My Hero

The noise is deafening

gunshots fill the humid air.

Your eardrums ring

stench fumes from the clothes that you wear.

Standing next to your brothers

watching bodies piling up on each other.

You wince at what you see thinking, thank god that wasn’t me.

You think back to the life you left behind,

lately the people you love back there have taken over your mind.

You don’t know what they’re doing,

with each other and another being.

You just want to tell them that you love them

one last time, in case this fight, you don’t win.

You look around at the faces

the faces of the men you learned to love in this place.

Pride covers their bodies

and they won’t let anybody

take that pride away.

They’re here to stay.

Here to stay to fight for their country

that will, thanks to them, forever remain free.

Your flag, our flag, billows in the wind

visible even to the blind.

The guns go off again,

like they did back then.

Before you were prepared you hear a thump next to you.

You look down at your fellow solider, his glasses askew.

The determined look on his face.

you knew that his heart was full of grace.

You knew the man well

and now that he fell,

you realize how precious life really is,

and how that man just lost his.

and that is why you scream

for freedom, for life, for other peoples dreams.

You charge into a sea of smoke

trying not to choke.

You know what will become of you,

but you just keep on going through…