Old soldiers never die…

Old soldiers never die…

Friends…

What happened?

They had my back,

Would take a bullet,

Carry me over the

Dead men,

Who would never

Leave the land,.

Refuse to let me go

Until they could walk no more.

We would crawl together

Through the mud,

The filth and blood.

Cry dry tears

For the lost and dying,

Until the end came

And we were re-connected

To our past.

It was all too easy

To lose touch

As the world

Moved on,

With little time

To remember what

It was like

Or have need to,

Even though it was burned

Into every firing cell.

What would we do

If we met now,

How would we know

Who we were?

I am so much older,

Cleaner and softer

Than in those lean days,

When fat free flesh was firm

And the strength

We shared

Pulled us

Blindly through,

Like shire horses

Worked to within

An inch of our lives.

I dream of those times

But you look so young,

Hardly fully grown.

Was that me…too?

How could we think

Of ourselves as men

When in truth,

We were still just boys.