AND NOW THEY ARE HERE

AND NOW THEY ARE HERE

There were stories he would tell

About his life across the sea

The tales of exotic islands

Were intriguing to me

He told of foreign ports

From Asia to Brazil

He laughed about flirting with beautiful women

And the sights he remembers still

Then he got quiet

And looked down at his coffee cup

His hands were wrapped around it

Like he refused give it up

He stared into his coffee

As if there was something floating in there

It was memories of some horrible things

He never thought he'd share

"It has been over thirty years

Since we landed in Beirut

The terrorists were everywhere

In hiding they stayed put"

"We were greeted with a horrid task

Much more terrible than hell

To dispose of the many body parts

Of the local infidel"

" You see, they would not toe the line

With what extremists said was right

So they were murdered, bombed, and tortured

Women were raped for hours that night"

"We tried to act like men

And not be sickened by the sight

But as we gathered up the body parts

Our stomachs were knotted tight"

"We were shot at by those cowards

Who holed up safe behind the scenes

We lost a fellow marine

A kid just past his teens"

"Not many of us slept that good anymore

Our nightmares would not stop

We prayed to see our homeland's shore

Where the terrorists were not"

"How would I know that before I died

We'd have those killers in our midst

What could we have done to stop them?"

My friend tightened up his fists

I know now why he looked away

As this story he revealed

A marine is not supposed to cry

The tears he had concealed