Before a man
Not just any man
Her husband shed a tear
Battle worn relationship years
 
She stood
A rock firmly chiseled and planted
by the blast of dynamite
A keg of C-4 . . blam!
Hunger pangs he felt 
Ouch . . . the best he'd ever held
His fingertips caressed her head, her face, her hair
Grasped at her hand . . . Suzanne
 
He called her delicately by name
He recalled her precious person
Her indelible frame
Long before
Before America's concentration
Became Hussein and became a nation
In a world at war
 
The Gulf War in foreign lands
On Islamic lands Al-naqba not imagined
Jihad against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban
The Gaza Strip and the Palestinian
Question

This war has breached national security
Placing domestic households in peril . . . instability
Destroying family causing disunity
Internal strife of Civil War . . . mutiny
 
But this time something was different
Though a veteran commissioned before
There was not just pain but anguish
Strangled hearts and souls sacrificed
On bended knees praying too that
She'd come to him once more
 
Committed to the command she carries
Her loyalty beloved to family
Rounded shoulders that bear and carry
The weighted stacks like Atlas

Pressure . . .
Wrought tightrope she walks the plank
To battle in New Nam and receive no thanks
In a desolate land . . no love but
There is the pain, the maimed
And ultimate sacrifice of life
 
In each others hearts they forever remained
Their love born of missiles and mortar
Mass destructive elements that strew
A call went out when the bombs blew
Because she knew . . .
That he and only he would answer
 
Today, into deep set eyes I peer
A smile that offers hope. . . glare
As she competently debriefed here
Contemplate do I
If there . . .
Shall ever be a cure for dreaded cancer
God of We of Little Faith
Please provide me an answer
 
War for love
. . . A True Soldier's Story