Old Men’s Tears

 

With hearts as heavy as thunder clouds

What once were torrents

Are now just trickles

Reflecting our futures

In the silver shimmer of our past

 

And they come

In stumbling honour

And their humility

Denies them as heroes

For the heroes were left behind

 

In voices cracked with age

They tell their tales

Of simple duty

In the face of the barrage

That defines them forever

 

I once knew a man like them

I held his hand

He wiped away my tears

He taught me the value

Of sacrifice

 

The bronze and silver and gold

Glints in the Normandy sun

From dusk till dawn

Shining like the rising

And setting of a star

 

Heed them now

For they will not be here

The next time the call goes out

For honest men

To become something more

 

And we marvel at their strength

And their loyalty to comrades fallen

But most of all

We are humbled

By these old men’s tears