she joined the military for love of country
and became a combat soldier in a death zone.
she saw others dying all around her,
one was her boyfriend of seven days.
she never expected to see and experience
such endless carnage, such hellish horrors,
and so many young soldiers dying.
her company got ambushed, most killed.
she became a terrified prisoner of war,
suffered indignities she never imagined
at the barbaric hands of an enemy who
didn’t care about the Geneva Conventions.
their tortures and gang rapes left her
broken, brutalized and disabled.
she got discharged from the military,
the high cost of her military service
incurable PTSD and haunting memories
of what the barbarians did to her.
and she spent the rest of her days
being counseled at VA vet centers
adrift the civilian life she never
felt at home in ever again.
Bob Boyd
