Inherited Medals

What does a warrior of the world leave behind? Published by Poetry.com.

Inherited Medals

Each of us is a warrior:
For earthly survival,
For the Lord of our soul.

What determines the time of service
Of each individual warrior?
Conscription? Consumption?
Was this culprit a volunteer?

An honorable discharge
Is really all the old warrior seeks.
In the end the medals and commendations
Don't matter
As iconoclasts.
In the material form they represent
Symbols, of the warrior's human achievement,
Rusting, deteriorating, without a hint
Of what they originally meant.

Value not the icon,
But hold it close to your heart.
It represents the culmination of humanity,
And your memory of it, the most precious part.