Song of a Warrior
From a commenter:
After visiting a retired friend who is waiting to die in a nursing home, I felt compelled to compose the following. Watching a once strong Warrior lie in bed wasting to nothing and wearing a diaper loaded with own stool almost sent me over the edge. Post if you like on main page. This friend is a Marine scout sniper/Army Ranger and has more than paid his dues in Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm.
SONG OF A WARRIOR
I am a WARRIOR
You took my youth and vigor and sent me to fight your wars in lands far away. Your wars, not mine, but I stood proud and accomplished what was asked.
Many of my brothers did not return home, some came home, but only in parts. I came home but with physical and unseen scars.
My eyes and mind have seen and recorded the brutal horrors of war and the killing fields in Korea, Vietnam, Iraqi and Afghanistan.
I am flooded with images and sounds that will never be erased.
You gave me awards and great songs of praise then threw me away.
The only comfort that remains is the understanding of brothers and sisters who have likewise dedicated their lives and well beings in the name of the cause, right or wrong we stood together.
I am still a WARRIOR; it is a will of spirit and mind that does not end.
Today I am broken physically but my mind, the mind of a warrior, is still intact.
I remain proud but unable to stand on my own.
Today you look at me as an expendable item of no use to your world, a world that would not be if I and my brothers had turned our backs on you.
I am today a throw away left and ignored by you, left to die without honor or respect.
Those who surround me and ironically are to care for me, have not the slightest concept of who I am, nor do they give a damn. To them I am just a hunk of disabled rotting flesh that needs to die, the sooner the better.
Why is there no respect, no honor, no true caring???
One wonders if this is the end, then the better part of valor and honor would have been to die on the fields of combat with so many of our true brothers.
Why did we cling to life so hard to come to this degrading and distasteful last run?
I am a WARRIOR let me die as a WARRIOR and honor me as a WARRIOR, grant me an honorable death
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/by-request/