If you have ever been in war or dealt with someone who has, this is for you. |
-Old As Your Moments- by Keaton Foster Wrinkled face Wasted away Old as your moments Not as your age You’ve seen a lot More than most Oh the hell The darkest days You somehow survived Living to tell the tale But for the most part You have remained silent Choosing to express What the past has all meant With the lines upon your face With your scars And those tattered hands When people unrelated Those who don’t know you Like I do The ones unable to fight For what they believe See you They are unable to relate They have no idea That what is wrong with you Is in direct correlation To not only what you’ve done But what it is you have survived But I know father I of course truly understand The few tales that you’ve told me Have sunken into my chest Rattled my inexperienced mind Lending me perspective Where before there was none Once you killed a man He was not the first But he was the last His death by your hands Was up close and personal He was the enemy of our way And as your orders declared He deserved to die Such orders came from man Not from God Something you have always Fought to reconcile You said it happened on the line In the deep blackness of night He was attempting to sneak Into a well-fortified base He made it through the wire Past all of the guard towers You were the last man to stop him You had nothing with you but a blade He had no weapon But he was wired to explode He had no intention of surviving A man with no fear of death Is by far the most dangerous type As you said, a hellish fight ensued Better the man, wanting to live The upper hand became yours His disregard for death Was no advantage for your wish To survive beyond that dark night You drove the knife into his heart And as he died there in your arms At your hands You promised him I won’t ever forget this moment I will live with these demons So that others won’t have to When the war ended You made your way home Back to everything you knew Before you were sent away Before you would made to decide Kill or be killed Old as your moments Aged beyond the number assigned Aged beyond the experiences sown Each day since father I know that another part of you Has died a premature death Be assured father That when all that remains of you Finally goes I will stand at your grave Saluting you for what you’ve done To ensure that people like me Those of us not tasked with killing Were afforded such freedom of being Old as your moments Your actions gave us the right to survive And the right to be free to further decide I understand that all that we can do Is show our appreciation towards you For doing what you felt you had to do… Old As Your Moments Written by Keaton Foster Copyright © 2014. |