In a dream laced with teardrops I was again taken from you,

My heart cried for you with a loneliness I once before knew,

From this vessel of heartbreak I watched you fade from view,

I reached out for you wishing their was something I could do,

Countrymen and citizens chose to send aged warriors to war again,

No life is wasted they said by sending old men that fought back then,

And again I fear, I am called upon to carry out mankind’s greatest sin,

The able bodied men with illness were the first selected of we men,

We were sad, we were old, worn through by the travesty of a past war,

Every burden I’d forgotten through the years returned in a downpour,

Into the fray I went once more clinging to an aged photo of you I wore,

Separation teardrops have yet to cease tho’ it’s been a week or more,

“They were baby killers” the leaders said of we men drafted in war past,

Too tough to die of napalm or agent orange we warriors of old are recast,

Forty six years ago I thought I’d left it behind, how could this be forecast,

Every lonely moment away from you comes flowing back incredibly fast,

As tears rush down my face and vertigo gives gravity an assist I’m down,

With each man still in shock they barely notice the old man on the ground,

As I crawl through thorns Benadryl slows the world from spinning around,

I pull your photo from my uniform and through you my courage is found,  

I am chosen by the commander of long ago but he is anguished now,

To fulfill a death assignment I must accomplish in triumph somehow,

Praying the bullets are no longer true as I must return to keep my vow,

Although I hate snow and cold I wish I was walking in it with you now,

You must be so afraid now to have me away from you for so long,

But as I promised to you I will find a way to continue and be strong,

My mind is spinning as I depart my body and I wonder what is wrong,

I have left my body five times before but I…..I feel as if I don’t belong,

Confusion has filled my mind as below I see events that can’t be real,

War continues around the scene below yet in my mind it seems unreal,

My body is absent the scene below perhaps it’s a dream of low appeal,

Have I died and broken my vow to return to you?  This must be unreal,

I’m lost in a zone unknown to the living unless having been here before,

Suddenly I feel a sensation of shaking as I start to float once more,

War has disappeared from my reality as our vessel is washed ashore,

Still I float above when I feel a flood of desperation for the one I adore,

Prayers cross my lips and I cry for our Lord to save my wretched soul,

Somehow my prayer has been answered and I leave my warrior role,

I open my eyes to find you as I pray for more time for what war stole,

You whisper “it’s but a dream”, it was more my angel, I’m again whole.

I love you baby, by Pat for Patti