C.O.

You did not live long enough David
To see today’s fog
It flew in on gust off the ocean,
Nor did you see much of anything after 1967
You died as a marine in a foreign war
Doing your duty to God and country
Like we were raised back home
Back then.
I lived on; even to see this fog tempest
Because something (someone)
Spoke to me
Differently
Was it Mom, Jesus, or innate common sense
That it made no sense, that war
Any war?
So people helped me, fortunately
They knew that my sense of morality
Was valid, as important as any god or country
And I resisted in my own way
Did not go
Did not kill
Did not come home
Damaged…
I lived to find
A peaceful way.