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Autumn Leaves
volume 7 number 6
Autumn Leaves volume 7 number 6 |
In the pre-dawn of Christmas...
still darker than
dark...
through my eerie, green night scope...
my target I mark...
as
I try, but in vain...
to focus my mind...
on the business of
war...
not the love of mankind...
alone in the jungles...
of this far
away place...
set to kill from a distance...
never seeing his
face...
never knowing his story,
or the tale of his life...
or what
he'll leave behind...
children, parents...a wife...
Though I have no
religion...
I cleave to no church...
No affiliation binds me...
to a
Davidian perch...
In heart and in spirit...
this day has been
blessed...
with memories of family...
and the holiday fest...
And tho
I'm a soldier...
sworn to my role...
on this sacred day...
I'll not
add to the toll...
I lay down my rifle...
unknown to my foe...
and
peer up at the heavens...
through my scope's dim, green glow...
I send
out my prayer...
refusing inure...
to whoever or whatever...
is
God-like and pure...
and I pray that, in time,
there'll be better
ways...
for soldiers and nations...
to spend Christmas days...
