A Little Tear Stained Face

Sitting on the front porch steps down close to the gates.

Hands under her little chin as she waits

Little eyes searching up and down the street

A stranger walks up the walk to her house in the summer heat.

Hello little girl what is your name?

Mommy says not to talk to strangers, but Cindy sir is my name.

That is a good idea the stranger agrees.

Mister, have you seen my daddy? He’s overseas.

He wears a uniform almost like yours; he’s a member of the corps.

He left a few weeks ago to go to something called a war.

He told me not to worry that he would be back before I knew it.

Well I’ve been waiting and looking and he hasn’t come home.

The stranger looks down at this innocent child,

A lump in his throat and a tear in his eye all the while

Without answering her he ask if her mother is there

Yes sir, I’ll go get her for you, you can wait in the chair.

A thank you and a quick wipe of a tear

In a moment her mother is at the door, face-showing fear

The stranger and her mother’s eyes meet, both blurred

Her mother starts to cry before he says a word.

Cindy, says mommy please don’t cry

Ma’am, I’m Major Bry

He seems like a nice man mommy.

I have the unpleasant duty to inform you about your husband Tommy.

Cindy’s mother collapses at the news

And the stranger hastens to her side, but no way to excuse.

Little Cindy doesn’t understand things like war and bombs

What had the stranger said to her mom?

The stranger took little Cindy aside and held her tight

Not knowing what to say or how to explain her dad’s plight.

Struggling to explain, Cindy said she understood

Then she asks the question that he somehow knew she would.

When is my daddy coming home?

No answer fitting, another child left alone

Another family broken by war

A cost that every soldier knows, but the responsibility they gladly bore.

Now let me see the ones that protest our military that protects their rights

Let me hear how the innocent will be hurt over there in the fights

Let me see what they have done to protect Cindy and her mom,

An organized group of the ungrateful that protests the bomb.

March 24, 2003