22 a day….
Honorable boys and girls
Sculpted into men and women
In the short order of weeks
Sent to lands not our own
Brothers and sisters in arms
Doing deeds of other men
Seeing the worst
Of so called humanity
Leaving scars so deep
Feelings of why.
Fallacies of inadequacy
Leading to doubts
Of one’s intestinal fortitude, thoughts of “This world would be better off”Without them in it
Believing the lies
Told by ones mind
They close their eyes,…..One last time……
Just wanting to be accepted
But feeling so different
Some, just kids at the time
They were taught to kill
Now spit out into the world
With no real help they
Turn to substances
To quiet the noise
Of war left in their heads
The phrase echoing inside
“Fall back on your training”
Our training never taught us
How to deal with this, but taught us How to survive, How to kill
And how to wage war
But not these feelings.
I want you to know, you
Yes you
The one having thoughts of ending yourselves
This world IS better with you
In it
I promise you it is better with you in it
We are misunderstood by the
Civilian sector
They don’t understand why
We do things we do
They always say things like
“Thank you for your service” but I’ve rarely heard
“Thank you for your sacrifice” some say “You were in war, your a hero” we are no hero’s, we celebrate the “Hero’s” because they didn’t make it home.
Yes we may not have lost our lives
In war, but for some we have lost our minds, the real battle comes after combat, after all the bloodshed and the “after action reports”
That battle is one in our own minds.
If this is you my brothers and sisters in arms, please I beg of you, find someone to talk to,
I know this is hard, but we were forged in the crucible, we know what hard is.
Please don’t join the 22 a Day club.