I Had To Change Poem by Dennis Walker

I feel now we were o so young
Through the nights we danced and had our fun
Not feeling we were wrong
Holding you close with our favored song

Your love to me you unfurled
You are my one and only safe world
Knowing what I needed to do
It was surely no surprise for you

I had enlisted before we met
To be a Marine my future set
We tied the knot before my training begun
One week of lust o so much fun

Now all my training complete
I arrive home like strangers we meet
You tell me I have changed in the things that I do
I try to deny but I know it is true

Telling you I am to be posted to a far of land
Before me with tears in your eyes you stand
You cannot understand the excitement I feel
Crying you say “the prospect of death is real”

Thinking I am mad when I say it will be fun
Pushing me away to the bedroom you run
I knock on the door saying “forgive” me a cry
Crying to me you say “what will I do if you die”?

The time it flies like sand in a glass
I have to leave I have used up my pass
Will you be here when I come home?
I love you so much please don’t leave me alone

Many battles I have fought
So many lost comrades in my thoughts
In my mind the fighting still goes on
With tears in my eyes I read my Dear John

I understand why you have left me all alone
I had changed so much when I came home
Not the gentle or kind man you used to know
Just a crazy shaking wreck because of the war