Fighting Stance

The Veteran With ranks of men the young upstart Forfeiting comfort for honour true Turned gunner of uncommon heart To guard the land that shelters you His work a calling few could stand Reducing foes to pulp and bone And marching through the drowning land A sorry military drone The sniper made his mind once snap Depriving him of forty friends On what resources he could tap To rise again my birth depends Although it happened long ago Let time not bury his bold play A broken body may he go A fighting spirit will he stay Although it happened on the ground As camera lenses past him flew The hills will echo one more round For fighting spirit born anew My father was a World War Two combat veteran and I first shared this poem online in April 2004 under the title, The Freedom Fighter. It was published in that big Saskatchewan newsletter, you know, the one you can buy at the truck stop on the trans-Canada highway when you pass through Saskatchewan by bus. Does Tom Hanks know it was already published in my name in 2004? The judge and jury will certainly know, once I'm through with him. ...3 surgeries in the past 6 weeks. First he had another tie removed and 5 weeks later most of the foot due to infection. Friday they had to amputate below the knee. This is all complications of his diabetes. He is currently in critical care on a breathing tube. These are the least gory of the details I've been reading about my father's last days on earth. He was a fighter. War is not the only occasion to fight in this life. Life is a fight. And I am inspired by the strength and the bravery of combat soldiers to fight as hard as I must to sustain my life. Actually, I think I would have wanted to be a pilot, but when I see how those torpedo planes flew through that gauntlet of flak to attack those Japanese carriers in the Battle of Midway, I am amazed by their bravery. That was such a great victory. Life is a fight and there is no escape from the fight. That's the real message of this poem, but I thought it was also a nice way to honor combat veterans. And now that my dad is dead, I really hope that the world can go back to thinking of him and of men like him when they read this work, rather than thinking of Tom Hanks and his greedy movie. Life was too hard for my old artist friend in 2000. Have you ever seen the face of a hanged man? They put that bag over their head for a reason. I'll never forget it. And he said that artists are noble and that God forgives suicide. I gather from his last psychic message to me, which was the same as the one I reported in 2007, that suicide separates you from your loved ones, however, at least for a while. Vladmir talked to me on the last night of his life on earth and he was staring at me with awe. He said that I was going to be an important artist. He made some uncannily accurate predictions about my future and then told me that I should kill myself. He was referring to this time I'm going through now when he advised me to kill myself. I must fight the urge to heed his advice on an almost daily basis. And I don't fault him for it because he said it from love. Tomorrow is Veteran's Day and I'll be taking the day off. Just one last thing, I will have to go to court before I can set foot on a stage but I don't think it will take very long to achieve the result I want. That's why I'm starting to practice my music now. I want to be ready.
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