USMC Photo

KEEP SMILING, BROTHER

When was it that you stopped smiling?

When did you last feel real joy?

That is what the world has done to you...

It could not possibly be your fault…

could it?

Do kids walk around you

like you are an angry dog?

Then it's time look in the mirror,

and not just at it!!

I used to say that to the

young Jungle Warfare trainees...

Don't look at the trees,

Look through them.

That way you might get to see

who the Hell it is who kills you.

I lay down in grass alongside the trail,

and a whole Platoon of 'Grunts',

walked right by me.

They had taken my advice,

and were looking through the trees.

I sat in a clearing alongside the trail,

behind a small bush,

hardly big enough to hide me.

My mate had fired off a round,

and while they were going to ground,

he ran down the trail past me.

They put in a sweep one, going either

side of me through the clearing.

They were not looking for me,

they were looking for him.

I walked along the line behind them,

One by one I tapped them

on the shoulder and told

them they were dead.

When one turned around and saw me

he began yelling,

“I've got one, I've got one.”

I had to laugh.

Keep smiling brothers.

© 9/23/2003 Colin F. Jones