She's gone

I used to soar like an eagle -- to climb in my mind's cockpit and take wing, soaring through the windswept skies, my soul twined with my heart's companion. She soared with me, but like Icarus flying too close to the sun, she lost her wings and fell, becoming one with the earth. Dropping with her, I could not leave her, I dared not leave her. Finally, I let her soul rest and never lifted my wings again. Now I sit earth-bound and no longer trust these useless feathers, my wings. My soul seems dead without her and I don't know if I can ever fly again. I know I cannot fly alone and stare painfully cloudward.


LET THE SKIES FALL IN ON ME, let the storms surge and tear the earth. I want that turmoil, to add my scrams of pain to those keening gales --- they serve to remind me that at least I am still alive, shackled to this earth though I am. How can I turn from her? How can I say goodbye?

The Wall

It's black, it's imposing, and it has many names.  Every name has a history.  Every name has a father and a mother.  Some of those names are parents, some are brothers and quite a few are sisters to someone.  They all put their nickel on the grass, they never came back to look for it.  The rest of us somehow found our nickel.  We ask ourselves "why me?  Why am I not there, too, with my brothers, why am I not with my Recon Team, listed there for anybody to see?"  I was there.  A few times I was their only comfort. 
I've been to that damn Wall.  I've found each one of my former team brothers.  The last living one put a hole in his neck with his old M-1911 and blew the back of his head away.  I know why, but I don't have the balls to join them.  Maybe one of these fine days.