A Piece of Me

I discovered the other day

I had lost something along the way.

A piece of me is missing;

A piece over which I have been reminiscing.

Oh, it’s nothing you can see,

A part that had but one plea:

Do the best that you can do;

Bring as many home as you can with you.

The part seems to have lost its way,

For I remember that once with me it did stay.

But it seems that somewhere, I know not where,

It just fell off and to find it I do not dare.

Maybe it was the first brother that I lost

Or could it have been the eighth; what a terrible loss.

Just do the best that you can do;

Bring as many home as you can with you.

Too many still laying cold in the ground,

Some of them already dead when they were found.

A leader, is that what you think?

When you are twenty years old, a lot of things are out of sync.

I honestly did the best I could,

No older men found to do the job, maybe they should.

This part of me that I seem to have lost

Was those brothers lives; what a horrific cost.

I think I found the missing part;

Yes, it's a large scar hidden deep in my heart.

For now I see it for what it is:

Regret, guilt, fear, or dread - gee whiz.

I haven’t lost that part, now I can see,

But I sure wish that it was lost and would let me be.

I ask my men, brothers all, to forgive

If they respond, then maybe I can start to live.

©David R. Alexander

January 12, 2003

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