As we meander the path through bewilderment’s way,

We pass many things we’ve learned to ignore each day,

I’ve looked into the eyes of a fellow draftee yet I ignore, 

I fear the tugs upon memories I have thrown to the floor, 

Another child, another day, I’ve dug deep to look inside,

I look into the downtrodden’s eyes and see they’ve cried, 

My good intentions have fallen to the floor of incompletion, 

Do you feel, have you felt the same pain without exception, 

Present the glories of the world’s darkness carried inside, 

Too many soldiers gone, too many Vietnam Vets have died, 

They traveled the streets never welcomed home from war, 

I deeply wished, as did they, that it could be as it was before, 

Fireworks crash, thunder claps, backfires all bring it back, 

Terror returns for one moment, just as when under attack, 

I feel it, I feel the pain, the fear, the anxiety of wondering, 

Will I go home complete or absent limbs, I hate remembering, 

How I fear “the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,”

Lyrics of war so misunderstood by many as fireworks glare, 

When memories hidden are awakened to be they return in full, 

Many men of that war never felt the glory of patriotism’s pull, 

To march the march of protestors revolt to a march of training, 

Was a startling transition of wartime that needs no explaining, 

Yet I felt that tug to defend as my father however he enlisted, 

Love held me back as well as schooling so I was deferment listed, 

How little we realize the depth of the damage done by one death, 

For a seventeen year old to watch another teenagers last breath, 

Is an assault upon innocence that removes any child left inside, 

The guilt of a late trigger response lays so heavy I’ve often cried, 

It’s locked deep inside shame’s vault of secrets yet disclosed in full, 

How many died as a result of a hesitant machine gun trigger pull, 

The first day, a first encounter, do I pull the trigger or am I a fool, 

My answer came in a fury of gunfire that left behind a red pool, 

Nineteen sailors injured that day as well numerous Marines dead, 

I, as do others, have too many things floating around in my head,

These are not pleasant memories I speak of but moments of dread, 

So many have it much worse than me and would prefer mine instead, 

As I exit to enter upon the path of fading years I take a pause, 

With her is heavenly existence, without I have no reason or cause, 

Had I hesitated years ago, hesitation may have brought catastrophe, 

Catastrophe involving Patti would spell the absolute end of me, 

Imagine my existence had I hesitated in canceling a date with another, 

Or had I hesitated when I crawled threw a window to an angel wonder, 

She was truly an angel, the imprint is heavy upon my mind for eternity, 

I see the silhouette of an teenage angel embedded inside me mentally, 

Almost daily I relive that moment of hesitant trigger finger pull, 

Was I hesitant or was it the normal jitters of a first day warring fool?

As it enters my mind I sincerely attempt to put my focus upon her, 

For she is the opposite extreme of the agony endured I need to defer, 

I take a deep breath as I did that horrible day and I meditate on loving her, 

Loving her is the easiest thing I have done, for her I surrender my life in offer, 

Sweet surrender, the sensational surrender of my heart and all I am in life,

Again she has saved me, again I am saved by my beautiful, heavenly wife.

The end, by Pat