I saw him weeping in the night,
beneath Orion’s endless flight;
what drew those tears I did not know,
the weight that pressed those shoulders low.
’Twas but a call from home, I’m told,
that drove him out into the cold;
that caused those calloused hands to shake,
that caused that soldier’s soul to break.
The strength to fight a thousand men,
to fall and rise, and fight again,
will in the stoutest spirit stall,
when shadows o’er the homefront fall.
When separated lives evolve,
when heartfelt promises dissolve;
when children into strangers grow,
the days and distance all they know.
That soldier now must face two wars,
must fight for life from distant shores;
find purpose just to seek the dawn,
when every ray of hope is gone.
Most casualties of war, I’ve found,
lie b’yond that foggy battleground;
where by and by it’s understood,
the price of war is more than blood.
Daniel Swanson, Calhan Mountain View Electric member