Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day
By Doris Meakim

You never told me you had seen the camps;
I don't know why you never told me that.
If I had known I might have understood
The dreams, the sudden starts that broke your rest,
The times you kept the light on for a while
To sit and talk and not go back to sleep.
You never told me why.

You never told me much about the war.
Just that one thing about the man who died
After you tried to save him all night long.
There are things a man brings home from war,
His medals, souvenirs, old photographs
And memories that do not go away.
Things that still could bring a man to tears
Sixty years after.

What memories are these to give a boy
Of twenty two?