Life & Times of A Scratch & Dent Airman

Goofy stilted teen,
standing in a Texas
pre-dawn haze,
getting bent & forged
into something more

Just in time
for a party in the desert
the perfect storm
of patriotic fervor
and roasted Iraqi flesh

Left to stumble
through drunken fog
in ancient German towns,
& in ancient Roman footprints

Beaten to the bone,
by marital discord
alone sitting on frozen
floors, recording
audience-less love songs

Thawed out and re-sent
into a new type of hell,
where the dust chokes
and blots out the sunlight
but not the smell of Death

Now two & 1/2 decades later,
he sits in the center of his life,
counting the casualties
of war & romance
the list indicates
a lost campaign & a legacy
of emotional cowardice
in the face of the enemy

A future in exile
from the harbor of love,
he is just grateful
to be allowed to watch
sunsets, and draw measured
breaths.