The Telegram

Cardigan sweaters and poodle skirts

White buck shoes and flats

The innocent dress of teenage flirts

And lucky Army Brats

Soon turned to Khaki summer clothes

Fatigues of olive green

What happened to the summer rose

Turned college sorority queen?

She waits in abandoned squalor

Child in the picture now

Waiting for an American Dollar

Her soldier will send somehow

He chose to go for God and duty

Love of country, he told his wife

Now she lives with her sister Judy

No hope for a better life

The final blow was the telegram

And the officers at her door

Her husband died in Vietnam

He’ll be coming home no more

Hate wells in her tired eyes

She cradles her son to her breast

She gathers herself to realize

That her soldier was the best

Sans Peur

©5/1/07Terry Sutherland

Combined Graphic: Richard Cano - Telegram, Thomas Perkins - Fallen Prayer