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Warrior and the Nurse
by Gary Jacobson © 2001
A combat infantry warrior
Ravaged in body and spirit
From the cruel war come to die
Bit the bloody bullet with his name on it.
Lying on his deathbed rough like the eagle tough
With a nation's blood on his wearied hands
Filling his wounded and repressive heart
Bloodied spent from alien lands.
Just a man wounded by war's inconsolable hate
The boy's innocence beat out of him
Just a boy in violence grown irate
Thrust into the armor of a man.
In far and away Japan waited an angel of mercy
Calling softly to sons of freedom born,
Calling far and away across the China Sea gently,
"Come ye brothers by the cruel war shorn."
Come from Vietnam's tremulous evil bore
From blistering conflagration
Come to Japan's alien shore.
I will treat boys rent by war's devastation."
"Come ye tired and sorely wounded
By hatred's slings and arrows oppressed.
Gather under my angelic wings unfolded
Here I’ll soothe body and soul by battle repressed."
"Embrace again sweet life
Feel my tender touch beleaguered soul restoring
Far from war’s maddening strife
Summon inner strength from the depths in healing."
Said the warrior, "Sweet angel with loving touch,
Honor a brother depraved by beastly war’s dearth.
Reestablish in my soul humanity's worth
Oh, a perfumed, porcelained hand, means so much."
"Honor a sacred tradition of comfort giving.
Pull a neighbor from death’s door.
Bring back love and joy of living,
Giving with sunny hope from compassion pour."
"Remind me of my humanity.
Mend my wounded heart so much in need.
Restore misplaced value's sanity.
Restore respect left back in the field to bleed."
Great mercy distills from beings in divine sympathy
As sisters deeply aware of spirit inside suffering
For those wounded in body and spirit, share empathy
In sensitivity the pain relieving
To father, brother, son, bestow tender virtue
Nurtured loving imbue.
A lady officer, and an embattled grunt private
Knowing days together were grimly numbered
Living a moment snatched from immoral war's fate
By the sands of time encumbered
In but a fleeting island of time before...
Before he must go his way...
And she return to tend teeming thousands more
Depart from budding love games in innocence play
To tend boys receipts from this bloody war.
For he was not a king,
Just a warrior-just a soldier-just a man.
She was not a dream,
She was an angel, disguised on earth as woman.
Lost for a fleeting moment from overseers above
They played the game,
Danced the dance of purest love
Though they were not the same...
Too far from carnage to heaven's brightest star
For the boy ripped from war’s raging mist
A journey exceeding far...
Far too for the master nurse therapist.
The warrior was too soon carried back
Back to "the world"
Back on silvered wings unfurled
Leaving behind his nurse caring
Showing others in gentle passion compassion...
Through tender mercy bearing
Her slice of home far from home sharing.
A seed once planted so long ago
Without nourishing sun and rain did not grow
Souls burnt by the pull of worlds tearing apart
Felt brief love with no beginning...and no end
Fallen silent through ages the beating heart,
The ways of the world cannot in the end bend.
............................
My angel, my nurse, Judy Blackman, told me time and again, our song was:
"Until It's Time For you To Go"
by Claudine Longet...
With a composite at the end by Neil Diamond, Buffy St John, Glenn Yarbrough.
You're not a dream, You're not an angel, You're a man.
I'm not a queen, I'm a woman, Take my hand.
We'll make a space in this life that we planned,
And here we'll stay until it's time for you to go.
Yes, we're different, worlds apart, we're not the same.
We laughed and played at the start, like in a game
You could have stayed outside my heart but in you came,
And here you'll stay until it's time for you to go.
Don't ask why, Don't ask how,
Don't ask forever of me.
Love me, love me, now.
This love of mine had no beginning, it has no end.
I was an oak, now I'm a willow, now I can bend...
You're not a dream, You're not an angel, You're a man.
I'm not a queen, I'm a woman, Take my hand.
We'll make a space in this life that we planned,
And here we'll stay until it's time for you to go.
Don't ask why, don't ask how...
Don't ask forever of me,
just love me, love me, love me now...
This love of mine has no beginning, it has no end,
I was an oak, now I'm a willow, I can bend...
And though I'll never in my life see you again
Still I'll stay until it's time for you to go...
Here I'll stay until it's time for you to go...
Yes I'll stay until it's time for you to go...
each poem with more action
graphics and Pictures
from the lens of a combat infantryman!