Battlefield Philosophy: What I Miss

 
by Rob Sanders
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I miss the empty places
With nothing in between
The ghost-haunted ruins
Of forgotten Eastern kings

Where you see goats tremble
As they hop along the cliff
And lizards scamper madly
For the shade beneath its lip

I miss the dusty places
Where the rocks are smokin’ hot
Where the sun glares off the sand
That’s painful bright all day

The summers are so hot
You’re too dried out to piss
And the winter months are so cold
That your spit can freeze mid-air
This is what I miss

When you’re gone and half-forgotten
Your kids don’t know your name
You worry if it’ll hurt when
You finally make it home

Don’t whine, don’t cry
Just soldier on
Words forgot, laughs forgot
There’s nothing but the job

This is what I miss

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This article first appeared in The Havok Journal on February 20, 2015.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.