A Marching Cadence

I used to live on base in Arizona and this is what I saw from time to time. I wrote about it because it breaks my heart to see this happen.

“Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon”

I can see the bags under her eyes,

She rarely sleeps,

I know she worries about when he’ll come home,

If he comes home.

“She wore it in the spring time in the early month of May”

It’s worse, her hair is thinning.

Not only does she never sleep,

She rarely eats.

How can I console her?

The mask of happiness is slipping away.

It won’t be much longer before she can’t take it.

“And if you ask her why the hell she wore it”

I tried to help her.

She cries every night,

I tell her to be strong.

But how can she be strong,

If she doesn’t try?

“She wore it for that soldier who was far, far away”

This can’t be!

They can’t do this to her!

He was supposed to come home alive,

Not in a casket.

I see now, she was only preparing.

They will see each other shortly.

Then she will once again be happy.

Author's Note

The words that have quotation marks on them are a march cadence that my friend, who is in the military, taught me. I used them for this poem to add more emotion.

Reviews

[Stefanie Holmes]

This was definitely full of emotion, which is what you said you were trying to add. Definitely a sad, heart-felt piece and a lot of military spouses can relate to this. I thought it was a wonderful write and I look forward to reading more of your work!

~Stefanie

[Palmerd3]

I agree that the cadence is well-placed, I just wonder if it should be in quotes. Italics might be enough to separate it from the rest, but that could just be a personal preference. I feel like these lines could be tied in with the stanzas that follow. Right now there seems to be two stories happening side by side, but they should mix. Wonderful subject matter, though.

[Thaddius]

the interjection of the cadence is so clever. It breaks it up so well. To me, not reading your description, I thought it was some sort of gossip. Powerful

[Krystall]

Thank you, I'm glad you felt that way.