Veteran Estranged

In your face I see wisdom
Embedded in every crevice and crease
What stories you must hold?
What secrets lie behind your eyes?
You stare off into the distance
Two subdued wells
Of infinite knowledge

When I look at you I cannot see
The bottom of your soul
You are not shallow or transparent
You cannot be read so easily
Yet people think they know
Your type

As you make camp on the bench
With a bottle of booze
A cigarette in your hand
In your worn out battle fatigues
You intrigue me
Surely you have lived many lives

Yet you sit wrapped up in silence
Or maybe just trying to silence
The voices in your head
Of war
And desperation
Of having the very essence of
Who you were stripped
From your very hands
That shaped this nation
As you walked the front lines
Taking shrapnel and mortar
In the name of a country
Who no longer can remember yours?

Yet you hang “your” head in shame
Still I just can’t help but wonder
What stories you may hold
What truths remain in the
Blood that pumps through your veins
In the creases that shape your face
In a terrain of wisdom
What stories do you have to be told