She walks down this path so many Mothers have walked before her,
Crisp uniforms line the path..a heavy heart..Tears in her lap.
An American Flag snaps to attention as if to say we know your pain Mother, but we don’t.
Through this all, she carries on the pride and resolve despite an unthinkable loss.

The twenty-one gun salute resonates through every city in America
Reminding everyone to take a moment to honor this fallen son.
On the 6 O’clock news Taps plays on every television.
And we shake our head in disbelief.

An unbroken line of Patriots that passed before him,
Line the stairway to heaven to welcome their brother home.
And a banner hangs in Moms living room window..Displaying  one Gold, two blue stars
“Lord please bring my boys home safely”, she prays

I hope you’ll think of some of the reasons why our brave sons & daughters make the ultimate sacrifice…..Here are just a few……..

The American Flag
Our military men and women
Freedom
Patriotism
America the Beautiful
Land of the Free
Home of the Brave
4th of July
Memorial Day
The Bald Eagle
Democracy
Free Enterprise

God Bless America!

I believed you
you told me
I love you
you told me
I'll always be by your side
you told me
you're the most important thing
you told me
I'llsupport you
you told me
I'll protect you'

I believed you
I found myself alone
I waited for you see me
I fell on the ground
I felt weak and defenseless
I thought ... he loves me

I learned to walk alone
I learned to get up by myself
I learned to defend me by myself
I learned to be strong

you realized
I was standing in front of you
without you
you told me
.... do you love me?

If only there are Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell.
Life and Death; Light and Dark,
Good and Evil ; War and Peace,
Prey and the Predator,
Lion and the Lamb
And Alas!
They exist not
as enemies but
to fall in love
with no one else but
Each Other.

I am the water
that falls
from your shower head
caressing your body
before
dropping
onto the bathtub floor
I get pulled
towards the drain
and
******
down

I am the ***
hanging on the rack
above
your stove
knock me on accident-
I will
fall
to the ground
breaking the silence
of the night
with the loudest
bang
I will wake up
your entire
household
as I plummit
down

I am the driftwood
floating along
this river
bumping
into rocks
and debris that
the current takes me through
I have reached
the peak of the waterfall
you will hear the roar
as I come
crashing
down

I am the skin that sags
around your *******
as you get older
you
curse me
every time
you look in the mirror
I am the cause
of your insecurity-
where you put the blame
for your marriages failure-
wrinkled
skin
being
pulled
down

I am the ship
with a ruptured
side
my buoyancy
broken
as I start to
tip
towards certain doom
the families and
lives
of the souls aboard me
realize
their fate
and show their true,
human
nature
as we
sink
towards the ocean floor-
as we
sink
down

wouldn't know
life
without it

gravity

bearing it's
pressure
force
attraction
inescapable
******* me
towards her
never leaving
no matter
how much
I beg

always
taking me
down

Feel the Force
Just Feel that Force.
No sign of divorce.
It’ll keep you on course.

It’s everywhere,
Not just a Star Wars fiction.
It may be God out there,
The cure for our affliction.

Whether The Force like us can think
Who knows?
Maybe we’re on the brink
Of its ebbs and flows.

All around there’s a Spiritual World,
Or so some say:
It’s yet unfurled
But we are on our way.

So Feel the Force
I say again.
Time runs its course,
Do ya ken?

As Yoda would say,
Your mind you open
And powerful you will become.

Paul Butters

I found who I am supposed to be
You took it away,
"Be like me"
I thought that a mother was supposed to wish
for happiness upon her very own daughter
and I'm sorry that I don't believe in your lifestyle
please don't force it, I am sorry to be a bother

I know you need me and I convince myself I need you
I do this for you like everything else
I say what you need to hear
When it's not what I want to say
I do what you want me to do when it's not what I want to do
I feel what you would want me to feel
Though those feelings aren't my own
I'm becoming the me you need
And losing myself all at once
Will you sit and watch my old self bleed?
Will I? Or will I realize what I've done?

You watch and wait for time to take all that it can from inside your soul.

It's wasted, the money you spent on time, you could have paid half to indulge on the mere portion of life you've tasted.

This earth, we've gradually graced it - and meaninglessly traced it - in books and photos and missed the memo reminding us to live.

The moment you chose to give up that argument - and all the energy you spent on settling for loving.

These blues and grays sometimes consume the days in which you could be laughing.

Lost in the echo of the static cracking of the voice maintained in quivering.

The shivering of the cold beyond the false control of everyone who has it together.

When problems weigh that of a feather.