They All Came Home

Julius –
port and put to sea
wanderer of the waters
Lightfoot, Bogey and Thoreau
merchant, drifter, philosopher
thousand-yard stare
the oath broken…‘leave no man behind’
1st of the 8th - Beirut

go easy brother
you had to leave…Urgent Fury called
grunts still held the beach
ordinance incoming from New Jersey, USS
far out of sight

had a bro’ on the beach told me
‘had to hug the sand’…’all we could do’
as the 2600 pound H.E. came in low
rattled by the impact a mile or more away

watched in stunned silence as the shells came in
cans tumbling end over end
like a VW Beetle rolling down a bank
an eternity later the concussion
followed by the report

‘not fast enough’, I know you thought
‘these son-of-a-bitches who pulled this off’
‘not fast enough to send them to hell’
with extreme prejudice…our way
the only way…the Corp way

go easy brother
we had your back
2/2 Warlords…Semper Fi
we brought ‘em all home man
shut down that stare now
catch some much needed z’s
they all came home brother, they all came home