Returned

returned

soldier you came back
came back you
with head intact
body too
same lovely face
which lines and sun
and battles lost
and battles won
could not erase
could only improve
much to the chagrin
of time
and fate
yet we are not
the same
you and I
as before war
when we lived on
looks and love alone
tired are we now
weary to the bone
you hold all in
I wear it out
your once pretty
prize
all puffed
and bedraggled by
too much worry and
doubt
bent and perpetuatlly
tense here and
everywhere
Still... we go on
we persist
hot summer days fly
into hot summer nights
till
the whims of old men
who love a good fight
call you back to them
to be there knight
on the game board
away
and what then?
it can't be known
only the slow
ongoing growing
return that ends
when you leave
once again