Haunted Poem by Suu Casey Young

You speak of respect and show me love
yet I see the doubt in your eyes,
when I wake up in a sweat
at the sound of dead men’s cries.
I fought the battle overseas
but could not leave it behind.
It festers up inside me,
it lives within my mind.
Trust is something I no longer have,
suspicion is now an obsession,
for the enemy is all around
a soldier is my life time profession.
My humour is now macabre,
my mood swings truly erratic.
I am haunted day and night
by a nightmare which is fanatic.
The things I saw on the battlefield
and the things I had to do,
have distorted my reality.
I can never share them with you.
So I am home with you at last
Just as I prayed for, night after night,
but though I love you dearly
I can never leave the fight.
They say God will forgive me
and time will help heal the pain
but I have been to hell and back
in a family destroying campaign.
So love and patience are strangers
to the man that stands at your door,
a man who must try start afresh
while haunted by what’s gone before.