Killer on the road

What good and bad we do in a life. The scars will always stay with us.

Killer on the road


A Iraqi man sipping  his coffee.
He watches the military trucks drive by.

He look to the sky and murmur a pray.
I will miss you my wife, my children.
He caresses his chest. 
He feel the bomb wrapped tightly against his body.

His eyes are sad and he knows he has no choice.
They killed his brothers.
They came to his country and torn it down to rubble.

He believed in a eye for a eye. 
He will be in paradise soon.
Tears fall from his eyes as he think of his wife sleeping alone.

Soldier with M-16 loaded and ready.
He tells his buddy going to be a good night.
Going to kill a few of them damn  terrorist.


His buddy with a bible in his hand.
Pray to survive the night without firing his guns.
He whisper  I pray I make it through the night.
Please lord keep me safe and let me go home soon.


The city is quiet and the soldier are on alert.
The gunner pass the coffee to his friends.
Tells him my eyes are seeing ghosts again.

 
He watches the morning light began to appear.
He thinks of a mother and father waiting and hoping to see him.
He makes a mental note to call them tomorrow.


A middle age Iraqi man walked down the street in the early morning.
His hands are sweating.
He see two soldiers guarding a government building.

The gunner asks his buddy was the man a ghost in the distance?
He put the bible down and tells him he is real.

The soldier looked at his bible.
Points his weapon at the man.
He raise his hand to halt the Iraqi Man.

The Iraqi man screams out his daughter name and Allah.
Runs toward the soldier.

The soldier aim his M-16 and shoot three rounds into the man chest.

The Iraqi man falls dead.
The soldier goes to him.
Fall and ask god to forgive him.

He open up and see the bomb and photos.
It still don't bring comfort to the soldier.

The soldier sit on his cot.
He hold pictures of a man's wife  with two children.
He wonder why he has to kill this man?

He should of been home tossing a football with his brother or something. 

He cries for the Iraqi he killed.
Old Sargent said he was a hero.
Those terrorist are just killers on the road.
Waiting for us to end their misery.
He bring his bible to his heart and tries to sleep.

The gunner wake him up.
He tells him we are on again tonight.


He puts the bible on the table.
Dresses  into battle gear and walk out of his tent.
He leave the bible tonight on the table.

He had bad dreams.
He dreams he was the killer on the road.

He would do his duty and go home.
He don't talk of God or Jesus anymore.
He just wishes for the blood to leave his hands.

The gunner smile.
He yelled maybe we can kill a few tonight.
His buddy smile and stare at the road.

                      Coyote

                                 

Author's Note

War leave no winner. Vietnam and Korea left scar for a generation of young men and woman. These Wars of today will be the scars for the next 60 years or more.

Reviews

[Angel's Lady]

Your war stories are so poignant to me...my friend over there, I wonder, how many men has he killed? Will those scars affect him when he's home with his wife and kids? I know they will, but will he realize it, or pass on the violence to those he loves....Great write, my friend.

[Sam Freeland]

This poem like so many others you write, takes us to the places no one chooses
to go with a reality we wish the killers of the world could experience before
they commit to killing. They lack the incite to understand the meaning of life.
If only they could have your wisdom the world would be a better place. Thank
you for an inspired poetic write.

[OT]

brilliant, veracious and poignant!! strong emotive piece, shown from two sides and written very well!! a great write!!!

[Linear]

You say so much truth in these words, even as i type this response tears fill my eyes, how long will it take man to learn that we cant have peace at the point of a gun, and God is not on any side in the mindless mayhem it causes, a bloody marvelous piece. exceptional

[Fabian G. Franklin]

Coyote, I love all your writing. And this piece was no different except that it speaks to a deeper part. My own feelings?

Darkness:

At the top of the world, high upon Mt. Everest, the sky is more black than blue.
The air is just too thin there for the refraction of light to bend and pass through.
But there are places in the hearts and souls of men that are just as void of life and love,
places that have never risen to the dizzy heights where nothing waits but heaven above.
There is no star of hope in that black empty chamber of night, no shadows of silver gray,
but there, rests only the absence of the Divine light with no promise of a coming day.
Here is a frozen puddle of tears, a mother cried who lost her child, a sad lament; a wail.
There is no port to launch the dreams of future times, no breath of life to fill their sails.
Here, the mourning pain of agony chokes and grips the spirit by the handle of doubt.
Woe; a cold chill wind, has blown upon the soul and the candle of life is snuffed out.
O Death, dear friend, sorrow finds it foolish you were ever considered a foe.
But now, with all the beauty gone from life, we long to walk wherever you go.
The nothingness far surpasses any representation of physical pain.
A cancerous mouth bares fangs and gnashes at the delicate tissues of the brain.
The longing cannot fill the lonely like the hoot owl's call from silent nights.
Darkness, empty, vast and only friend to desert sands that time has turned to ice.
Thundering echoes of cannon fire with rumbling tanks that shudder and roar
roll over a landscape of broken bodies and the oozing entrails of endless war.
Here, a soldier screams and sweats, he turns face down to puke in the mud
and wakes in the morning with trembling lips he bites until he tastes the blood.
These are the places, the blank empty faces, which stare into an emptiness within
where once there lived a beating heart, no part is found where the darkness has been

[Marie Harrison]

Such a sad story. Thanks for sharing!

[Norma M Sutton]

Nicely written. Only one place where I think there might be a typo:
"He raise his hand to hath the Iraqi Man." Do you mean halt in this sentence?

[Jūdan FyreHeart]

It gave a very balanced overview from both sides. The imagery and emotions came through strongly adding to the message with the final lines hitting everything home.

[Cherrie Palmer]

No matter how noble the cause the price is paid in souls, great job as always.

[.]

poignant..great that the piece switches views ..intelligent, relevant and so sad..war is so pointless...