Remembering Jack

[Sailor55]

Remembering Jack

My father’s spirit died in war
Six years before my birth
Terrorized in Amsterdam
By sniper bullet bursts

Hand to hand and street by street
The liberators dared
To flush the starving remnants
Of Hitler’s cold and scared

Shrapnel took its ragged bite
The others weren’t so lucky
Daylight fire melted down
His comrades bold and plucky

With body sweating innocence
Into the mud of Holland
His living corpse was deafened by
The silence of the fallen

The hollow soldier traveled home
His lady waiting vanished
A job was promised on return
But soldier jobs were banished

His county run by meeker men
Now busy growing richer
Forgot the founders of the feast
In legions tilting pitchers

With tender hooks on sanity
My father did his best
To build a life and never face
His post-traumatic stress

“That’s for sissies, Sonny boy
Now take your life and make it
The country’s yours, the time is now
Be sure you don’t forsake it”

So after living full and free
These many fruitful years
I thank you Jack in every way
Today you have no peers

This November eleventh…
On this single, forlorn and foggy day
Inhale a sweet breath of freedom
Remember those who procured it
And how fragile it is

[spanky2007]

I love this poem. I can feel the emotion you used to write it. Keep up the good work.

[Sailor55]

Thanks Spanky,

This one was a very long time in the making but written in only a few short hours on the eve of Remembrance day. I admit to a few tears on the keyboard. - Sailor

[negatvone]

Way cool.

[Debbie]

This is a beautiful tribute Sailor...and I do thank you for sharing it with us..it is an honor to read a story coming straight from your heart.
Thanks Sailor..well done and so sad at the same time..and yet a privelage to read because he was a hero.

[bags123]

As always your poetry is a gift in and of itself,...... but this one has to be special to you. My Dad was in the European Theater in WW2 as well, and I remember as a kid how he'd once a year take down his old wartime scrapbook,..... sit in his chair, and remember not only his time in Europe during the war, but also tell me stories about his buddies,.... using the old pictures he'd taken while there. He tried hard not to get too emotional, but inevitably I'd always see a tear or two rolling down his cheek, which he'd blame on allergies. Bravo Sailor,.... outstanding work.

[Phoenix J. Star]

[Sailor55]

Thanks Pheonix... and thank you Bags, as the son of a veteran you know will know very well where I am coming from.

My father said almost nothing about the war to me. What I know about his experiences came largely from the confessions of his own family. An older cousin was there when he returned home in 1945. She remembers his brothers and other people close to him talking about what a horrendous time he’d had in Europe.

He was a sergeant who was often called upon to order men into extremely risky situations. He was once demoted for refusing to send some soldiers into what he considered certain death. The demotion didn't last long. He was soon promoted back to sergeant. There were very few people willing to take on that kind of responsibility in the heat of battle.

He never said much about it to me because it wasn't my war and he knew I wouldn't understand. The only person I ever saw him talk freely with was a Vietnam veteran who moved in near us when my dad was about 60. They would talk together in the backyard. These men were 30 years apart in age but they shared precisely the same historical context. It was clear I wasn't meant to be part of these discussions so I tactfully left them alone.

If anybody needed psychological help it was my father but he believed to the very end that psychologists and psychiatrists were nothing more than voodoo practitioners. I'm sure that in his mind there was no chance a young university graduate just setting up his ‘shrink’ business could have the slightest idea about the horror and profound ugliness of war. Perhaps he was right about that. I don’t know.

But somehow, he managed to provide for his wife and family without ever shirking his responsibilities. He provided for all of us, while keeping us sheltered from the darkest side of humanity. He seemed far from perfect to me when I was young. I never really understood who and what he was until he was long gone from this world. I do know that today I stand on the shoulders of a giant.

I can say with certainty that heroes are not always born of heroes. I've looked deep inside many times to see if I have the courage to have done what he did for his country. I believe I do not.

Jack took his own life on December 26th 1982.

[bags123]

May he rest in peace.

[Sailor55]

A Bump for Nov 11... - S

[Sailor55]

Another year, another bump

[Sailor55]

[heinzs]

the years go by so quickly now, Sailor... I can hardly keep up with them.

[moonflower]

a beautiful tribute!..enjoyed!