The Flag Is Still There Poem by Mike Abel

If the desert turns green and the sand shifts its place,
What chance do you have to trail masks or find trace?
When you're meant to be there to help in the cause.
Then second thoughts die and pull-outs on pause.

When what's right must be done, and the price isn't fun.
Let short madness subside and from strike-back please run.
Since your call is to justice and freedom and life,
Take the kick on the shin; you're bigger than their strife.

It's more than just frenzy or blasphemy too
The prize is the world, not just red, white and blue.
And so you were born, to stand in the night,
To defend those that bless and to bear those that bite.

Yes you cry as you do while the darkness brags,
And snuffs out life's light, and torches the flag.
But another day comes, for the land of the brave,
For her heart, head and hands to reach out and save.

Mike Abel
Durban, South Africa
September 2012