Hero (standard:poetry, 165 words)
Author: M. Richard Smith	Added: May 28 2005	Views/Reads: 3143/2	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
This is a poem to remember some of our nation's forgotten heros.

Hero 

**************** 

See that filthy, scurvy man 

standing on the street corner 

he stands there day and night 

reaching out his dingy hand 

asking only for 

the sustenance of a life 

that even lesser men 

would not accept. 

He claims to be a veteran 

that he fought in foreign lands 

in wars he did not start, 

wars he did not choose, 

and wars that will never end 

because victory is still uncertain 

to those who were not there. 

But is he telling us the truth? 

He doesn't look like any hero 

in any book of history. 

He doesn't look like anyone 

that I'd want defending me 

or you'd want defending you. 

Did he really sacrifice 

the way he says he has? 

Did he really fight in wars 

to preserve the freedom 

that we can take for granted? 

Is there a reason we should doubt 

his mumbled, drunken words? 

I do not know 

and may never know for sure, 

because, like you, 

I was not there. 


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