Freedom Beer

It didn't seem fair, he said it never is my dear.

You want to re-pay me? Then lend me your ear.

We sat quietly on couple of old wooden bar stools with no backs at the end of the bar for awhile.

I tried to anticipate what he might say, although I knew I wouldn't understand.

I knew it was one of those things you'd had to have been there to even comprehend.

I watched as he caressed his fifth beer as if it where the first one he'd had.

He says to me, it ain't love, but it ain't half bad. It's the only reward bestowed upon me,

and God knows I have served faithfully, but I can never get drunk enough to forget those fallen along side me.

I told him all would not be lost to his grave, for in this moment a soldiers story will remain....

I can see his pain still remains from doing his time, and having to leave his brothers behind to walk the same line.

Day in and day out of building base camp in the land of pretending everything's fine.

Dusty boots planted in shit holes he never knew existed.

Looking upon his con rads faces for reassurance of why he enlisted.

Endless nights of staring up at the sky, trying to pretend he's anywhere but there.

Hungry for home and thirsty for the very freedom he fights for.

He tells me about the difference in a sunset depending on where you are in the world.

He says that's the bad thing about a sunset when you're driving due west

As he's cruising through the desert under a chromackey sky

he knows that in an hour or three the sun will be in his eyes.

Sometimes all he can see is how he feels, like the whole world is on the other side of that dirty windshield.

Success was disguised as his initial test, but the weight of the movement reveals the test of himself.

And a mission was born, not from his superior, but from his conscience.

Steadfast on the path of duty he endeavors to travel, fearing no evil and dreading no consequences.

He discovers himself with new eyes in his reflection.

He now sees revealed in his actions the true meanings behind his fathers teachings.

Imagine how a sun setting can make you humble yourself to it.

How grateful can you really say that you are?

And when beauty asks a question how often do you reply?

How often do we take for granted God's Country sky?

Do you wonder about life on the other side?

On the other side of sorrow, on the other side of rage, on the other side of this very day.....they do.

Imagine what absent familiar faces would do to you...now multiply that times thousands of soldiers or two

and just when you think you're gonna cry

multiply that times ten and start it all over again for a stent undetermined by you.

Now imagine if this were your truth.....

Thank you to my heroes who serve, have served and our fallen heroes..you are not forgotten.

Godspeed