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Today
is as bright
As
the darkness of night;
When
the moon fails to shine
And
heaviness is mine!
No
hope can be seen
And
companions are mean;
The
Wilderness is calling
And
bivouacking is appalling!
Today's
"camel-ride" is hard,
With
no music from a bard;
No
sweet birds are singing;
No
fragrance the breeze is bringing!
Like
a picture-puzzle unfinished,
The
burdensome load undiminished;
Whose
bones are these in the sand?
They
are the bones of a Japanese man!
This
is an island
Of
strange sounding name;
The
stench of death
Is
ever the same!
Bones
lie in the sand.
That
were once part of man;
Yesterday
he walked upright,
But
gave up the ghost last night!
Guns
and bullets robbed him of life.
I
wonder, had he a wife?
Will
she learn how he died?
He'll
never know how she cried!
War
is HELL: blood and guts!
Come
on soldiers; move your butts!
Stand
up and meet the foe,
For
one of you has to go!
The
sands will catch us
When
we fall
And
the sands sucks
Up
one and all!
Does
the sand absorb the soul
As
well as life's blood,
When
a barrage of shrapnel
Comes
in like a flood?
The
word is out that
Japan
lost 4,000 today;
Their
bones lie about
In
hap-hazard array!
The
decade of the forties,
When
airmen flew sorties
Over
the Isle of Kwajalein;
I
close my eyes but bones are still seen!
It's
not the sight
So
much as the stench,
For
it hangs heavy
Over
many a trench!
A
Japanese anchor
Marks
the spot
Where
4,000 are buried
After
being shot!
I
remember the Jap
Anti-aircraft
gun,
With
wheels and all,
On
the beach in the sun!
How
many planes
Did
this gun bring low,
The
warm waters alone
Know
where they go?
No
sand to receive them
Where
they fall;
Not
a soul to hear them
When
they call!
No
trees left at all,
On
Kwajalein where they fall;
No
one to mourn the loss,
At
so great a cost!
How
many of us are left
With
over a thousand a day
Of
World War Two vets,
Just
wasting away?
Yet
we remember the sands
Of
far away lands
Where
bones mark the place
Of
the Japanese Race!
After
all these years
The
memory brings tears
To
the eyes of all
Who
remember their fall!
War
has come to an end
And
the foe is a friend!
The
thought comes to me,
Have
the bones vanished in the sea?
If
only bones could talk,
And
stand up and walk,
What
would they say
On
Kwajalein's Isle today?
Will
the memory turn loose
Of
the day and the night,
When
foe met foe,
And
many met fright?
Are
the hearts still empty
When
loved ones in homes,
Received
no dog tags,
Not
even their bones?
Has
the island grown trees,
And
grasses covered the sod,
Where
brave men died,
Known
only to God?
My
daughter e-mailed me
Just
a few days ago,
Asking
about what beauty
The
Pacific Isles did show!
I
don't know what to say,
In
answering her today!
When
men's bones decorate the sands
Of
strange-sounding island lands!
Will
you tell me what to say?
Shall
I speak of stench and death?
And
all the soldiers
Who
lost their breath?
And
those bones still lie
In
the sands
Of
strange-sounding
Island
lands!
Names
like Kwajalein, Enewetok,
Bikini
and Tinian,
Where
these islands hold
Men's
bones in their sands!
The
question comes to me,
When
will memory set ME free?
When
will I see bones no more
Upon
that sandy shore?
And
how long will
The
stench remain with me,
When
half a world away
I
smell it again today?
When
I close my eyes tonight
I
will remember the sight
And
the stench of days gone by,
Where
4,000 men lay down to die?
When
I lie down to die
And
find my home up in the sky,
My
memory too will lie in the sands
Like
the bones in strange-sounding island lands.
Then,
and then alone
Shall
the memory of the past,
Quench
the workings of the mind,
Leaving
all the bones and stench behind!
Copyright
© C. Douglas Caffey
All Rights Reserved
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