Vision

I knelt there in that field…
my hands over a gaping hole
where his heart should have been
trying to stop the bleeding
and watching to comfort him as
he lay dying.
Not classrooms or
cruel touches from the
eyes of my peers will erase
the memory of one lost
dying soldier.
He had the bluest eyes
and I knew not his name—
for I—I was but a child in
a classroom filled with
fifth-grade thoughts and misunderstandings.
They didn’t see what I saw.
They only knew that his blood
was dripping and had stained my hands.
After that, the teacher closed the curtains
against any further sight—I know
she saw my own fright when I realized
I would after that stand alone
amongst my peers.
I will never forget his face—nor
will he forget that I tried that day to heal
his wound as he died.
It’s alright….I told him. You’re okay…
it’s alright. Words only a child could speak.
Then he died—but there was a peace on
his face and he smiled.
I returned to the 5th grade—shocked
at what I had just seen and heard.
Bullets buzzing—and a whir—and
the tall grasses hiding the both of us.
There was no sense of fear—only a
sense of purpose.
It lasted but a moment
and has stayed a lifetime.
One day, I will meet him and thank
him for saving my life that day
in the jungles so far away.
See—it was that day I knew I had
sight different from other’s—that
day in the jungle—hands over that
gaping hole—was unlike any other I have
ever experienced.
I can’t explain it—or tell why it happened.
It was supernatural—that day in the jungle
I knew I met God.
I met him in the jungles of Vietnam.
That soldiers bones are still there—
but he has come home.
One day—he will meet me—
and say thanks for trying.
We will smile—take a long walk
and understand what happened
and why.
Until then, I remember—all—of them.
Sacrificed.

WWI----9-16.5 MILLION people, including civilians, prisoners of war, accidental and other
WWII----50-70 MILLION people, including civilians, prisnoners of war, accidental and other.
Korea---aprox 37,000 people, MIA, POW and other.
Vietnam----aprox 60,000 people including MIA, POW and other.
resourced from Wikipedia.com. (Wednesday, November 10th, 2010)
Remember that freedom is never free....it costs.
De'Anna L. West
© 2-19-09

When will we ever learn?