Barefoot Soldier Poem by Asher Kessar

</></></> Snow, winters coat. Covers my bare feet as i march on home. My toes are blistered, barren, and blue. My gun is cold as what it was made to do. My helm is now a part of my skin. My uniform is now my body but not one i hope to die in. A gunshot. I fall to the snowy red field. I've been shot in the back of my knee, i squealed. Theirs no escaping my fate now, i said, i'm surely a goner, just as good as dead. I lay bleeding in the crimson snow. Gripping on my dog tag, because i know. That's how they'll identify me, tell who i am, when they come to alert my family and friends. They'll tell'em of the burdensome news, and they'll tell'em i said that i loved them too. They'll say i'm a hero who fought for their rights and freedom. But the truth is, i fought for my own. To live another day to come that much closer to seeing my home. So, now bleeding here all alone. I realize that i yearn to go back home, i want it so bad i begin to crawl away! Crawling away from the fires behind, the battlefield, the bloodshed, the traumatizing crimes. Call me what you want, call me what you will, a coward, a traitor, a no good for nothin Bill. Well all i know is that i want to live to see another day! So i'll crawl as far far away! The bleeding wont stop, i wont stop to! I'm crawling home, and theirs not a damn thing you can do! I tightly grip my wounded knee as i crawl on home breathing erratically. The blood still won't stop! What am i to do! No no! I can't feel my leg! It won't move! I cant crawl like this! I'm as good as dead! I panic, my heart beats to its violent end. Snow, winters coat. covers me whole, my bare feet, my body, and my barren blue toes.