I remember the months before you joined up.
"Semper Fi" sticker on the back of your Rabbit.
Posters of those proud men on your bedroom walls.
Bound tales of their adventures on your shelves.
I was too young to worry.
I just knew I'd miss you when you left.

Time passed.
I wrote you letters and bragged to my friends.
Hawaii, then Japan; home now and again.
But you were changed somehow
...disillusioned
...harder
...further from where I was.
I was too young to understand.
I just knew I missed you when you left.

War loomed.
Older, I knew to worry.
Your letters now went to Saudi.
You could hear the bombs, you said.
I think that might have been when I learned to be scared.
I missed you and wondered if you'd come home safe.

That was long ago and you've been home for years,
safe and sound.
Now a new battle rages.
Not on sand in a distant land,
but in your bowels, your gut, your throat.
Two years of fighting hasn't brought you any closer to a victory.
I worry.
I will miss you when you leave.

03/01/2006

Author's Note: My cousin George joined the Marines right out of high school, fought in Desert Storm and now battles cancer at age 36.

RIP George. 3/11/06

Posted on 03/01/2006
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