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By Mark I. Kirkmeyer || Poem Categories

Silent Airport country as flag
Footsteps echo back
Normal for midnight
But light shines through large observation windows
Aircraft parked at terminal
Cold and Silent

I have my duty
No time to think
Lots of time to think

A continent away it started
Fanatics acting not of anger
"Inshalla"

They are not all that way
Wonder about my friends from the Gulf
How do they feel?
Sorrow, anger; not joy

Step in the command center
It's on the news.
The twin sisters have fallen;
The man sliced open

Mind running
Thinking of numbers,
Calculations:
Why do I do this?
Training?
Estimating body count
Must return to duty
Don't think
A monster
Thinking of numbers
Not of people
maybe I've seen to much
What will happen when the job is done?
Tears overwhelming as I relax:
How many losses?
Overwhelming.
By Mark I. Kirkmeyer
Copyright 2001
Listed January 24, 2013		  

About Author... Mark Kirkmeyer served as a Light Weapons/Medical Specialist in the U.S. Army (1983-88), the U.S. Army Reserve (1988-1992), and the California National Guard (1992-1995). He is Gulf War Veteran (1991) and served in Korea (1986-87).

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War and Tragedy Poems | Poem Categories