Sheila, forgive me for inserting this into your thread like I was tooting my own horn, but your poem about your son and the military struck a chord I wrote to someone whose son is in the 'Rangers' and was sick with dread. I wrote this for her and for all of the mothers world-wide whose child goes into harm's way:
Soldier Mother/Soldier Son
I think of him, dropping quietly from a desert sky into a land where even clouds refuse to go. I think of his fear and the fear of those who are with him; a fear that lives only on battlefields and binds together the lives of every soldier from every war. I think of him, carefully picking his way across an alien world, where mines replace meteors at gouging out the earth. I think of him and the mission that he has, knowing full well that across the empty miles there waits another mother’s son with a mission of his own.
I think of her, restless, sleepless, sobbing quietly into her pillow. I think of her fear and the fear of mothers like her; the kind of fear known only to those who have carried a life within them. I think of her making her way through the days’ distractions, where every phone call or message could be the one that changes her life forever. I think of her courage, knowing that in a faraway land there waits another mother of a different tongue struggling bravely with a courage of her own.
I think of them. I think of the casualties that are about to occur to both mother and son on these fields of battle; of the loss and heartache that lies ahead for all of us. I think of them. I think of every one of them… and I pray.