WAR Poem: The Price of Your Service, by Elowen Finch.

They told me to watch my words, to be quiet and confined.
So, I’ll hide the truth within my verses and rhymes.
I’ll write it in where the secrets can lie.
I’ll reveal it all in between the lines.

The war inside my mind never fades.
Tangled in shadows of our darkest days.
I remember the feeling of the mask.
The grip on my wrist, their never-ending tasks.

I watched the torture, at night flashes of pain untold.
It’s something from a movie, yet it’s real.
“It’s for his job” they say, “for the greater ideal”.
They tell me as they stand so cold.

Now I stare them in the eyes.
The ones who caused you and I this pain.
They’re your friends, I see them everyday.
My smiles are a bitter disguise.

I stay at home with our children by my side.
We live in comfort with money to burn.
Every dollar I spend reminds me of the pain I’ve earned.
I’ll never forget the truth they work so hard to hide.

“Thank you for your service!” they proclaim.
While they’re doing our families a disserve, they have no shame.
Hidden behind the idea of a soldier’s fight.
Our love has come and gone, out of sight.
I watched every drip and heard every plink.
Your screams still haunt me, they broke our connecting link.

They stole you from me in their ruthless game.
How do these family’s pretend life is still the same?
Carrying on acting like nothing’s gone wrong.
I will never be that strong.
I will never forgive you or the lies they defend.
I’m at war with it all, against you and them.