TWILIGHTSPAUSE

In twilight's haze I sit in silence, pondering

on times gone by that I spent a'yondering

upon seas of strife and roads of endless toil.

Those days are done and I may now rest,

reflect and send myself to memories best

recalled with woeful smile and baleful grin.

Years have come and gone, then gone again

where I were young and filled with hopeful thought

of deeds not done and purchases not bought.

I've paid that price many times over since then,

and bought memories of days of pain when

I traveled afoot on misery's darkest shore.

I've been there and now am again once more.

Young men dream of distant thundering gun

and think for them their life is now begun.

Wiser men have heard that murderous roar

and pray their silence forever and ever more.

We walk our paths of destiny we are shown

and gain knowing of what should not be known.

We see sights no one should ever have seen

and hear the cries of hurt and things obscene,

like wounds and shattered limb and forever dead.

War is ugly, a putrid, cutting word never to be said.

But then I've lived through a time of a child's bright eyes

and hopes and dreams of sailing free upon the skies.

I've known the touch of a son's gentle grip

and sailed upon fatherhood's joyous ship..

The years have brought many tears, it's true,

but brought they also hopes and dreams anew.

Time heals its wounds with endless hope of a day

and return of a life's mate from so far away.

Time has marked my back with its cruelest mark

and given me smiles to light the darkest dark.

I rest and all, these days, is well for me.

I live here now in twilight reverie.

*By: J. James (aka Lafcadio T. Lion)

Used with permission:

to The War Told Through Poetry