Nodded to the man with the veterans cap

Eyes filled with more than I'll ever know

Vietnam
Korea
Iraq and Iran
Germany
Japan, and Italy.

Traces of blood
Stained on the smallest of forms.

Largest of hearts,
Torn by tyranny, terror and trauma.

Biggest of men,
Shorn by the bullets.

Comrades mere inches away,
Dead in a moment of a minute.

Tears of mothers watering their graves-
Widows in black
Tracing their name.

The old man's bearing,
Wearing a thousand legends
Protection and freedom laced his form.

And I?

I nodded to a hero in a veteran's cap.