"Caskets at Tan Son Nhut"

THE DESTINY

The chill wind blew the petals off the Roses on the grave

A misty rain was freezing on the trees so they sparkled

The preacher had talked on how all needed to be brave

The lights in town weakly glowing, it seemed they twinkled

Down below, under the mound of freshly piled up earth

In a coffin made not of fine bronze, but the cheapest wood

A mother’s son had been laid to rest before he had worth

It wasn’t that he had been bad or that he was overly good

He was one who went to see what he could to try to help

Long before he was in school, he’d known what he’d do

He’d realized as he played and it served to train this whelp

He could fire a gun and hit his target with accuracy so true

The first day he could he joined up to serve this country

He had waited all his life, for this was what he had to do

To help us to keep this land, the sacred Home of the Free

He proudly wore his uniform, his Green Beret a proud soldier

He knew the costs would be high, but he enlisted all the same

He went out there to serve at the edge oppression’s frontier

But now he has come home in a box and no one knows his name

Save for his Mom and Dad or that girl he left here so far behind

They will not have those kids she wants so bad it hurts her inside

There is just a cheap wooden cross and memory left to remind

Of all who loved and miss him who watched him leave in pride

He has made his final trip and come back to the place he lived

He will rest for all Eternity and none will honor him again you see

Except for the ones he held close, the ones that he once loved

I know that is how it will be as that soldier it seems… is me.

© Spider ‘08