"THE WALL"

 The night was cold, I was ten years old

When the Chaplain made his call.

The news was bad, my mother was sad

When she heard of my fathers fall.

An ambush he said, they all were dead

The words were so shocking and cold.

Eight other men died, eight other wives cried

For young men who would never grow old.

The years quickly passed, they seemed so fast

With no father to show me the way.

Yet I knew from the start, deep down in my heart

We'd be together, forever, one day.

Through the laughter and tears, the months and the years

I kept hearing "its" far-away call.

The day I was cold I was thirty years old

when my eyes first set sight on the WALL.

It seemed ancient yet new, as if somehow on cue

When I saw the earth become still

And my memory once gray, became focused that day

On a man who now suddenly seemed real.

No more tears filled my eyes, no more lifetime of "whys"

All the answers I'd found in this place.

With the touch of his name, gone was sorrow and pain

and the bad memories were quickly erased.

As I stared into the black, my father stared back

And he smiled and my heart filled with joy

I said "Welcome home, Dad, what a journey you've had."

He said, "It's sure great to be home, my boy!"

                                                               -Kelly Strong