Etched On My Heart

Wounded in battle
on a September morn
laid the tattered edges
of a soldier’s soul torn

Tongues of fire
had severed love’s cast
blazoned the words
that regretfully last

A decision was made
one he wouldn’t change
and like a ghost town
his love he’d estrange

At a bony eighteen
his life cast adrift
on an ocean of hate
after the lover’s rift

Locked in the battle
in the heated storm’s rage
poured words from his veins
of a war they had waged

From that first summer
on her father’s farm
his scribbled letters
and her girlish charm.

Coy was that boyish smile    
Beneath the oak he laid    
dazzling toys and trinkets
as she sipped lemonade 

No room to breathe
amid the intensified fire
a pain became realized
that soon would expire

Heaped on morning’s wings
came the blood scattered notes
Slumped from a satchel
were the words that he wrote --

Like the roses in winter
we endured from the start
Your love will forever be
etched on my heart

Now free once more
purpled flesh steeps skin
draped in starry pride
and a heart-shaped pin


For the Kansas Poet Contest
deadline September 18, 2006

poem featured here:
http://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/3305