We were so young back then.
Seventeen or eighteen maybe.
We got to be more than friends
Soldiers get closer than wives.
In a jungle a million miles from home.

We exchanged letters
to give to our girls back home.
In case---well you know
Just in case.
Even going to sleep at night
We would say I love you, man.
Then wait for the response
I love you too man.

The attack had no warning
Bullets flying everywhere
The clearing a blazing
light show of tracer lights.
Guys fell all around me.
Airpower cleared them away.

I looked for Joe he was hit badly.
I held him in my arms
like a baby as he left us.
His last words were
I love you, man.
The last words he heard
were from me.
Not as much as I love you, man.

I was hit and bleeding
But I did not hurt with the shock.
Six months later
I went home to the USA.
I drove my old car to west Virginia.
And found the old trailer park.
I knocked on the door of a small trailer.
And his beautiful girl answered it.
She was holding a baby boy.

I passed the unopened letter to her
As tears filled her eyes.
I lied and said
the blood on it was mine.

She passed the little guy to me
To hold him as she read it.
I kissed his tiny forehead
gently and I said
See Buddy
you’re not dead at all
I love you, man.