#armylife
The road stretched out before us
like it had a grudge to settle —
mile after mile of mud,
rain that couldn’t take a hint,
and boots that swore at you
with every step.
But we walked it anyway,
because that’s what gunners do.
No fuss, no drama,
just a steady plod
and the occasional complaint
to keep morale at the correct level
of cheerful misery.
The gun rattled behind us,
its wheels clattering like an old aunt
who never approved of anything
but insisted on coming along.
We shared the weight,
shared the jokes,
shared the aches that settled in
like unwelcome lodgers.
And somewhere along that endless road,
between the blisters and the banter,
we found a kind of peace —
the simple truth
that you’re never alone
when you’re walking with gunners.
At the end of the day,
when the boots came off
and the brew went on,
we’d look back at the road
and laugh at how far we’d come.
And tomorrow,
we’d do it all again —
because the road never ends,
and neither does the regiment.
May 18
May 18, 2026 at 9:23 AM UTC
Where the Guns First Called
***
Orders lead me on.
A boy where shop lights flicker,
dreams stitched into dawn.
Fourteen, slight of frame,
boots too big in borrowed thought,
yet steady his aim.
Past butcher and bank,
familiar voices fade low—
the world tilts, half-known.
A door, plain and still.
“Army Careers” in quiet print,
yet loud with his will.
The sergeant looks through—
not at years, but something set,
a resolve half-new.
“Harrogate,” he says,
“Selection—see where you fit,
find the path you’ll take.”
A place yet unseen,
cold platforms and waiting trains,
northbound into change.
Measured step by step,
eyes judged, questions weighed in turn,
a boy tested clean.
Guns speak without voice,
distance, patience, iron breath—
the choice finds the boy.
Royal Artillery—
not glory, but weight and fire,
a calling of ground.
No turning of head,
no glance back to childhood’s street,
just forward instead.
Orders lead me on.
Roads I never thought to walk—
a life taking form.
May 9
May 9, 2026 at 4:40 AM UTC
He stands where silence hums against the grain,
A soldier bound by ghosts behind his eyes,
Steel threads his chest, but not his ache or strain
The faded photos whisper lullabies.
Each taped-up moment clings like prayer to wood,
Though time has thinned what brotherhood once stood.
The camo hugs like armor and like chain,
Yet every fold remembers where he’s bled.
The wall, a shrine to joy not born of pain,
Still leans with shadows of the living dead.
He guards the space where memory dares to tread,
A quiet oath still echoing, unsaid.
The mirror watches with a hollow stares
Not quite a man, not wholly lost to war.
The past reflected, stripped and laid out bare,
Tattooed with names he doesn’t speak any more.
His silence roars where once he swore with pride,
Now draped in years he never set aside.
The brothers in that photograph still grin,
Suspended in a frame, immune to dust.
But he’s the one left carrying memories of them,
Their birthdays, burdens, courage, grit, and trust.
They marched beside him, now he walks alone,
A relic housed in flesh, not yet stone.
So steel your heart, and do not call it brave
This life of war is not a badge to wear.
Each breath he takes, he pulls out of the grave,
Each smile a lie, each laugh a threadbare prayer.
The vest may guard his ribs from a bullet's intent
But never from the hollow grief of death.
May 20, 2025
May 20, 2025 at 10:56 PM UTC
Leaving a void in my heart,
There you went!
I could see your numb feet moving away from me,
You were sulking like a child on the inside,
Whose tous haven't been bought.
I could see those tears.
But...
Leaving me alone,
There you went.
Your going away was not a waste,
After all, the LOVE for our country,
I know.
And today when I stand beside your grave,
I am proud,
More proud than any woman on this earth.
I loath myself for feeling you left me,
Because you never left me.
You are with me ,
Like the oxygen surrounding me,
Enabling me to live.
You never left,
You never went away,
You left a mark.
A mark I will carry with me for the next
Six months in my womb,
I don't know if it will leave me like you did or not,
But I will raise it like you would have done.
I will love it like you loved your country,
I will kiss it like the flag kissed your body,
I will hug it like you hugged your death.
Not that you won't be missed ,
But it won't be in a sad manner,
I will miss those moments
We made together with a big smile on my face.
I will miss how the last time
You left ,
You said that " Love is Eternal".
I didn't understand it then,
But now I do.
And there you went!
Taking a part of me
And giving me a part of yours. ❤
May 24, 2016
May 24, 2016 at 1:05 AM UTC