The American Soldier

The American Soldier
By Josh Watkins

Standing on the front line,
Staring into the face of Death,
With fear riding on every breath.
A gun in his hand and fear in his heart,
He prays to God hoping from this world he shall not part.
His eyes shift from left to right,
With not one foe in sight.
His hand shakes,
His stomach quakes.
Torrents of sweat roll down his face,
Praying to God for his mercy and grace.
Suddenly, men started to fall one by one,
As lead flew through the air by the tons.
He dropped to the ground and crawled ahead,
Rolling and hiding behind the dead.
The field that was once a luscious green,
Now marked with the blood of the fallens' heads,
It is now a cherry red.
He puts in a new clip and the gun starts to shake,
Protecting the many lives that are at stake.
With a man on his left and a man on his right,
They start to pick off every enemy in sight.
The man on the left lets out a bloodcurdling cry and falls facedown
Then the other cries with a twisted frown,
And he too slumps to the ground.
The soldier becomes as still as a rock,
Then grabs his gun and it he restocks.
The general orders the men to move out,
But the soldier has his doubts.
He got to his feet and started to run,
Then he heard the sound of a sniper's gun.
He then felt terrible pain,
For his shoulder, a bullet it had just gained.
He felt a strong beat in his heart,
Airlifted from the battlefield he doth part.
His arm badly damaged, they had to amputate,
It seems he wasn't ready for Heaven's gates.
As he lays in bed,
Thinking about all the dead,
He cried when he remembered his buddy’s fall,
Just another statistic to add to a wall.
He is discharged and is given the Purple Heart,
A new life he looks to start.
Now back with his wife and kids,
He remembers all the things he did.
He takes a look back,
And remembers the troops who fought with him in Iraq.
All the lives lost,
Billions of dollars the cost.
Nothing has been won,
And the war is far from done.
The soldier visits the cemetery and looks to the skies;
He sits down and starts to cry. 

My patriotism was high and my emotions were running wild during the writing of this one; which was finished a week or so after the Pilot. The inspiration for this poem came from three places The first being the movie We Were Soldiers which is a film about the Vietnam War. The second was from the Iraq War which happened to be going on at this point. And the third was I had just written about an Air Force pilot so now I wanted to write about the land soldier.

As you can tell, this piece also needs a lot of work. You should also note that I didn't capitalize "the soldier" at all throughout. This was because I wanted the soldier to portray any person who wears the US uniform. I wanted to make these lines "The field that was once a luscious green, Now marked with the blood of the fallens' heads, It is now a cherry red," as visual as possible and I re-wrote them numerous times and reading it again today...I still don't like it. But I won't omit it because I wanted so badly to put in in here and will fix it down the road. 

Near the end is where my sudden burst of anger at politics and war kicked in. In the lines "He cried when he remembered his buddy’s fall, Just another statistic to add to a wall," I was thinking of the Vietnam war (yet this soldier is fighting in Iraq) and how angry I was that the grandchildren of the soldiers who endured that hell were going through a war themselves. And it was all because the older men declare war, but it was the young who fought and died. I also make the reference to Iraq because it was relevant at the time. 

I don't know what was with me and semi-sad endings at that point. I guess it went with the teenage emotions.

Last note. This piece is supposed to be read quickly at a heart-pounding pace. I wanted to as best that I could to make it seem as if the reader was actually the soldier on the front lines in the face of danger. I did not have the experience or knowledge (and still don't) to accurately portray a soldier in a hot zone. 
Also, as mentioned before, this was my second major piece, but I didn't release it until today for Veteran's Day.

Just to be clear I was not angry that we were fighting terrorism, or angry at Bush. I was irate AT terrorism, WMD's, and the waste of life because of such evil events. This piece was my attempt to uplift the American Soldier who chooses to go abroad and face evil because his/her country needs them. To leave behind everything they knew and loved for the call of duty. To resist the forces of evil. To uphold and protect what  we as Americans have the right to because it was was fought and died for 237 years ago...freedom. Thank you vets! God Bless America.