The unclaimed Purple Heart

While on a walk through my neighborhood I came across a homeless man our eyes locked for a moment and he told me his story so I ran home and wrote this

 

We all have a story to tell, chapters to embrace and shadows to cast.

          

 

   THE UNCLAIMED PURPLE HEART

                                                                  by       donnalee webber


     I met a Vietnam vet today, He had found comfot
on the steps of a local shelter. 
  Such burdened thoughts, bowed his head in sorrowed shame.  I offered him a pensive smile as he reflected his hunger for my attention.  I paused my destination as his petitioning eyes invited my heart to hear his untold story that anchored each wounded word behind harbored tears. 
  I watched as his young arms held a dying friend, I witnessed his torment of his tale and question of patriotic reason. 
Echo's of heroic hell armored behind honor and childhood dreams. 
  The pain, quickly chased away by enemy fire challenged his faith of duty to a country not a god. 
  I heard his cries of questioned reason of each painful loss of fallen brothers, whispered hero's of faded glory.
  I felt the agony of loneliness behind his unclaimed Purple Heart as my tears offered reflected embrace and comfort, affirming that I had heard his untold story.

  Our eyes locked for a moment, sharing a quest for hope and understanding.

  I honored him as a soldier, an American and a hero.

  He was a veteran, a stranger in a moments passing, a mentor of life lessons. 

   I was thankful for the gifts his story offered my own life journeys
, yet we had not even spoken a word.

 

 

 

 

                                                                     by Donnalee Webber

 

Author's Note

Just a quickly jotted down Raw true story about an American Hero