I want to tell you a story
One that you’ll remember
A long time ago, I had dream
Wrapped in flowers and scents
A tree stood in the middle with red and white ribbons
Playing leaves
They flowed in the wind
A softness displayed
Wind made the grass roll like waves
You could almost hear music
Eventually, those ribbons fell from branches
Landing on the sea
Slowly, they morphed into beings
They began to dance
Red and white becoming one

Shots rang out, red splattered down
Pale faces surrounded me
A sea of dead bodies
Shaking and trembling
Mourning the loss of those who stood and fought
The cold rain froze our skin
Making it numb like so many other things
But sometimes when it rained; it felt nice
It ran down the neck, over the spine, causing the body to shiver
You knew you were alive then
And maybe not well, but alive and breathing

The images played a million times
Never once leaving the mind
The glazed and open eyes of those who had fallen behind
The blood lost and spent again and again
Maybe it was the dream that kept me going
Every night those ribbons came alive
Danced in the moonlight till dawn
Until the shouts woke me
On the move once more
Believing the end was near
A time to begin
To live again
More time went by
Winters came
Summers passed
As leaves changed
And the grass became green again
The sky would open up and reveal the sun
How warm it could be
But it was in that same bright light
That the crimson shined
As we passed over more land
The grass becoming higher and higher
Reaching waist deep in a sea
Flowing in the wind, I thought of those ribbons
How calming they were to me
Chiming soft tunes in that lost mind
I claimed was mine
My best bud would laugh at me
Calling me girly
For dreaming of such things
He would always say
Why don’t dream of women and me
I couldn't tell him to get his mind out of the gutter
We were in one
So I shrugged it off like none
Months turned into years
He still stood by watching idly sometimes
Then is when I thought he sees it too
Those ribbons in the wind
Leaves to the dead tree limbs

One night…..
I remember seeing him lying there
Recalling the cold rain running down my neck
The salty taste on my lips
The trembling and shaking and regret
No ribbons danced that night
No sleep ever came
But not long after that
A plane took us all away
A train whistled and brimmed to an end
A car slowed down on gravel driveway
The field led me through a sea of grass
To that oak tree
Where I saw her reading
She looked up
A grin broke through
Tears rimmed my eyes
As she ran to me
In her hair, those red and white ribbons dancing in the breeze
She slammed against me
I clutched her blue dress, tight in my hands
Red, white, and blue
So proud, so true