Oh sweet child,
Cribbed as a gift from God,
Within the belly,
Of my own bowels.

Blessed piece of flesh,
Sperm and egg made whole,
A magnificent miracle of life.

Nursed from within,
And born out of,
A womb,
To love,
And serve the world.

Yet stolen...... even plucked,
As if a seedling,
From the very branch,
Of my own being,
Like sap sucked out,
As marrow from my own bones.

Conscience seared,
Innocence lost,
Manhood morphed,
Into the brute force,
Of a soldier ready,
And willing,
To kill,
Upon command.

Yet,
Upon return,
Still a man,
But one with scars,
Hidden deep within,
The troubled spirit,
Of a once blameless child,
Forced to face the reality,
Of a long gone,
And distant war,
Having come home to roost,
Within the now wounded soul,
Of a fallen,
Human frame.