A Sonnet To The Wounded Warriors Poem by Gary Bryson

I Once Was A Warrior
A Sonnet to the Wounded Warriors

I once was a warrior, but now today,
My battlefields are not so far away.
The foe that I face have no weapons of might,
Anxiety and worry are the enemy I fight.

I once was a soldier, but now I sit,
No longer in a body that’s lean and fit.
No greater cause, no more fields of glory,
The guns are now silent, no friends, no war stories.

I once was a sailor, but now I lay,
Trapped in my body in bed all day.
As I watch the new men go off to war,
I will never again sail to distant shores.

I once was an airman, the sky my domain,
But today just the memory is all that remains.
As I gaze out my window in the dark of the night,
Knowing I never again will take flight.

I am a Marine, and I always will be,
Broken, not bowed, though my eyes cannot see.
The hospital halls now the trails that I take,
The pain that’s inside, the new enemy I face.

I once was a warrior, but now today,
My battlefields are not so far away.
The foe that I face, I face in my home,
And my greatest of battles I must face alone.

1/6/05