The Gathering
Honey don’t even ask how my day is
Or the proverbial why so glum
It should be obvious but none the less
You’ve always been the inquisitive one
I booked a road trip to hell and back
Stumbled over some rough terrain
The tears you see runnin’ down my cheek
They are from pain and not the rain
Long before you and I ever were
I became a United States Marine
And tonight I met a few of my men
Once again in a distant dream
You see there were so many of us
Who went to Vietnam to fight
And because of fury and happenstance
Those young men remain young tonight
Yeah I know what you’re thinking dear
I’m an old man, how can this be
I’ve often asked myself that same question
Why them dear Lord not me
So every once in a while we muster up
And we visit long after the setting sun
My age fades away and I rejoin them again
In the land of the forever young
It’s not that I want to be mean to you
When I ask you gently to back away
I just don’t want you to ever know
What it’s like to return from yesterday
©Copyright June 4, 2013 by Richard D. Preston