My Flag

My Flag stands great
Its colors so proud

Symbol of my service
Dedication
My life

I am not the cloth
The fabric
Nor the colors bold

I am just a man

They invest me
Define me

The colors bathe my soul

Fly proudly in thy Glory
Symbol of the Free

No matter what come this day
You can always count on me

Harm may befall you
Tatters, tears, and wear

Your beauty stained by battle
Neglect
Or willful children

I will cradle you my liberty
Shed my blood to cleanse the stain

You will suffer no harm alone
Noble Warriors will always share thy pain

Rise up mighty Glory
Fly proud and true

Thy symbol of my nation
Home of the brave and true

________________

This first appeared in The Havok Journal on Jun 14, 2015.

Leonard is retired from active duty military service with 24 years and two combat deployments to Iraq. He left the Regular Army after 10 years and became a National Guard Recruiter for his first tour in the AGR program followed by over 10 years in Operations as Force Protection, CBRN, and three years as C-IED. He has an Associates degree and is currently working on his Bachelor’s. He is an amateur metal smith and when he is not working or writing he can often be found in his shop pounding away in the attempt to transform a lump of metal into an icon of beauty or function.

His years of operational planning, threat analysis, and a deeply cynical view of our imperfect world leads him to focus on world events and cultural beliefs that tend to cause the most friction and chaos in the world around us. He is a libertarian and he believes in personal freedoms and accountability. The Havok Journal gave him an outlet to express the things he sees wrong in the world and the opportunity to once again provide advice on how to fix it. Leonard can be contacted a leftoftheboom@yahoo.com.