Marked

In one square shot moment
My life was forever changed
By a kid who fired an RPG
Playing grown up war games

With all my innocence lost
With the sound of a rifle crack
and the splatter from my weapon
Telling me I can't have it back

Bleeding out on a concrete floor
Found him on the last house sweep
Staring up dead eyed at me
His last few breaths he couldn't keep

Nothing in that brutal game
No one for the rest of my days
Knows what was in my head
As I watched his life ebbing away

Staring down at his bearded face
I was surprised to feel no pity
Compassion was overshadowed 
As something dark crawled into me

It was a silent eerie curse
as subtle as it was stark
I felt it deep into my bones
I knew that I was marked

I had crossed the line of death
Dealt it out with a vengeful toll
 I knew for the rest of my days
His death would be on my soul

It burned a hole deep into me
To the marrow of my bones
To my last strand of DNA
Death had been atoned

There was an empty feeling
Someone said it was shock
Standing over his dying body
I didn't know how to take stock

and we turned and walked away
left his body to be found
lying dead on a concrete floor
Dropped by my M4 rounds

Author's Note

Being hit by an ambush meant chasing hajji and securing the area so it was common to come across dead and wounded hajjis that you had just shot. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling in the world, that's for Goddamn sure.I'm gonna share something that may sound silly to you but it's one of the things that bothered me about seeing the younger ones get killed. Most of them weren't married and in their culture that meant they were virgins. It seemed to me a cruel fate for a young man to die a virgin. It's just one of those things I guess

Reviews

[KAOlmsted]

I've read this no less than five times now, hoping I might have something to say at the end of each reading, but the truth is, I don't. Not because the piece didn't move me, rather because it did. And I recognize there is absolutely nothing I could say that could possibly come close to how deeply sorry I am that you had to live through this. So. There you go. Exceptional write. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Kimmer

[KAOlmsted]

Always my pleasure...

[Patricia B. Hepler]

One of the most revealing and powerful writes I've ever read. Each verse, each word etches the grievous horrors of war that YOU experienced on the souls of your readers.
~pat

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Pat

[Patricia B. Hepler]

You are welcome.

[Annabelle Lee]

I'm sorry, Ricochet. I don't have the words to fix something like this, I don't even have the words to explain it to myself. This was a great write, if that's you wanna hear, but I don't know how to respond to it.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Annabelle

[Girl Friday (Sarah W.)]

I have to say that I read through this at least three times before I completely digested all of the words. A moving piece, indeed, and one that begs to be read. I feel the sorrow and the disdain, the innocence and the pain in this one, and it really gets to the heart of me. Reading this was like looking into your soul, and for that I feel priveledged.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Girl Friday

[CynicalxDreamer]

I am not a soldier. I never will be and I hope I never have to experience the degradations of war. The poem is moving without the need for allusion or complexity. It merely is what it is. Sometimes a poem merely needs to be that. I am not sure how much war poetry you have read as a soldier, but I would refer you to Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon as much of their work was the ravages of war. Thank you for sharing your words.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Cynicaldreamer

[Ohhhwillow]

Very rare to come so close to the heart of someone true to an experience like this.. And for that I'm extremely thankful. Not only do you write from the heart of something so tender but you do it well, with your usual rhythm, suiting to this piece as it quite similar to a nursery rhyme and you speak of innocence and boys fighting a war that men created. There's no way for us as readers to make sense of this senselessness you describe, no way to understand it or even learn from it.. We feel from it however, deeply. Indeed it is "just one of those things", indescribable, even to those gifted with a golden pen. If you haven't already seen Black Watch, Te pay by Gregory Burke, you should.. It's very beautiful and covers the same issues as this beautiful piece. Nice write Baby

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Willow

[Tai Ryens]

I really am baffled by your experiences. There really is nothing to comment about. I shall end this with praise, as I do all yoru works.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thanks tai

[Epipsychologist]

This is a really awesome poem. Like all of it. It's bad a*s and it has interesting similes. Nice work.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you sir

[jerrypat]

Gut wrenching, bare-faced and real as all hell. My thoughts were churning out possible scenarios which each deadly verse caused me to speculate. I could list the things which crossed my thoughts, but I think I shan't (love that word) because as I neared the ending of the truly remarkable piece I understood quite well what the case and point of the poem was and is. I can't relate. I've not been there, done that. Blood on your hands, no matter how honorable it may be still leaves a mark on you that will never leave. "War! Good Gawd, what is it good for?" Those words from an old song, "War," by The Temptations more or less sum it up. My uncle. Second World War. Prisoner of the Japanese. Bataan Death March. Survived. Never was the same, died screaming about the things he saw and experienced. As you might can tell your poem has really affected me. Sorry you had to go through what you did, but happy you are able to deal with it in this forum.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you for stopping by Jerrypat. I appreciate your input.

[KeeD]

after reading your thought process behind this piece I feel exactly the way you do.. it's the sad truth of it all, but reality is it had to be done.. if not you someone else...
I'm sure they will be rewarded with their 70 or so virgins in the afterlife.. Everyone is human after all.. we all bleed..so we all feel. Great write BR.

[Baby Ricochet]

Thank you Keegan

[Jack...]

Memories, whether dark and draped or light and free will always remian just that...memories. Very cool.

[Baby Ricochet]

thank you jack