***For My Dad..WW2 Vet***

He stands on a windy corner

His hands can't control a slight shake

But his smile emits warmth, and his rheumy old eyes

Cannot hide what his past did to make

A country still free, a future still bright

Even so, he never will boast

Or even discuss the horrors he's lived

In the trenches of Normandy's coast.

He's locked away terror, and hopes it will stay

Firmly behind his mind's door

But when darkness envelopes him, as it does every night

He relives, in his sleep, that same war

That saw him kill humans, men like himself

Who would rather be far from it all

With a wife by his side, his new babe in his arms

But his country called him, and  he answered the call

He lived in the dirt, on a ship, in the air

His life on the line, it mattered not where

It all was the same, the time ultimately came

When another dear comrade could no longer bear

When the screams became silent and the last sigh escaped

From the lips of the man whose last word was "Mom"

You closed his eyes gently, and silently swore

His death was not wasted, for him you'd push on

This man on the corner in a shrunken old frame

Was once young, had dreams of his own.

That did not include taking Dads from a child

Or leaving young women to raise them alone

.So, what do we see when we walk down the street?

An old-timer, so frail, past his prime?

Proudly wearing a poppy and a smile as you pass

Will you stop, then turn back, and take time

To shake the hand of the bravest of men

And say "Thank you..I can never repay

But I'll never forget, and my children will know

Of your bravery, and why we can say

That we live as we do because of soldiers like you

You sowed crops that put forth great yields

Those who have died, we remember with pride

As poppies blow in Flanders Fields.

Valerie Thornhill

******LEST WE FORGET******