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A Combat Soldier's Prayer |
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This combat soldier's prayer,
Who has served his time in Hell,
Is may we learn the lessons of war well,
That we not doom future generations,
The same old tales of horror to tell,
To endure what in youth they see mistakenly as glory.
Oh God, do not let our children repeat the same old story.
Make it so that America's babies live to grow old
In this land of the free and the bold.
Help us throw off the shackles of hate that bind
And grow old in a life of a peaceful kind.
Teach us that there is no glory in war,
Nor honor there that brave men should not abhor.
Teach us instead, one for another our brothers to love.
Shower us with thy Celestial message from above,
That we plant seeds of peace evermore
And make war-no-more!
But if I should die on some far, far away battlefield
Know I answered the call
For a grand principle of freedom to yield.
My fervent prayer is that my death may not have been in vain
Fighting for peace and right for the world to attain.
American roses standing by my side on alien soil dying
In the summer of my youth all the leaves around me falling,
Now I'm lying here still, in sunshine and in shadow,
Longing to hear, "brother next door, I love you so."
For moldering in the soft ground,
I feel you living and loving in the world above me
Standing tall because I fought that you might be...
Oh look ye down now, and tell me that you still think of me
Honor my red blood, spilt that others might stand free.
Tell me that I did not give my all for you in vain
That brothers and sisters do not look upon my sacrifice
With hateful, or even worse, uncaring disdain.
Do not forget me when my valley's hushed and white with
snow,
Grass growing green in the summer of my meadow
Help me find the peace I lived and died for
Make my lonely grave richer, sweeter be...
That I might too, in your hearts live on, eternally free... |
By
Gary Jacobson
Copyright 1999
Listed
June 1, 2010 |
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About Author...
In 1966-67, Gary Jacobson served with B Co 2nd/7th 1st Air Cavalry in
Vietnam as a combat infantryman and is the recipient of the
Purple Heart.
Gary, who resides in Idaho writes stories he hopes are never
forgotten, perhaps compelled by a Vietnamese legend that
says, "All poets are full of silver threads that rise
inside them as the moon grows large." So Gary says he
writes because "It is that these silver threads are words
poking at me � I must let them out. I must! I write for my
brothers who cannot bear to talk of what they've seen and to
educate those who haven't the foggiest idea about the effect
that the horrors of war have on boys-next-door."
Visit Gary Jacobson's
site for more information
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