by Boxer Wyze

Created on: May 24, 2009

He stares across Pearl Harbor
Remembering ghosts of days gone by
Gripping the rail he searches above
For Zeroes in the sky
Memorial Day, Memorial Day
A tear comes to his eye.

His young friend screams - no,

That's just a dream,

A remnant of the past.

His eyes turn down

To the water

Silent,

Peaceful,

Empty,

Vast.

He knows what it means to be old now

Old and left alone

From this fateful harbor he'd fled

And wandered

And now he had come home.

All those boys and men he knew

Still there inside his head

Sixty years and more had passed

Sixty years they'd all been dead.

And yet in him they continue to fight

And to die all over again.

A trembling hand passes over his face

As he remembers his brother, his friend.

Air exploding

gunfire and flames

dying, choking prayers of men

Confusion, horror

and gasoline

Come pouring in, roaring in

the water turning black,

Red,

Boiling with bodies

Boiling with bullets

Torpedoes and bombs

The water burning, the water turning

Sucking down all who fall

Keeping them in, dragging them in.

Only the outline of the good ship

Arizona marks the spot today

Bleeding oil

Drop by drop

Coming up for air

Drawing forth gasps

From old men.

On Memorial Day

America awoke and won the war,

But for those at Pearl Harbor, peace no more.

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