The Dark Room Poem by Marie WardAlonge

There she sits in a room alone with a speck of light.
In her lap she holds a picture of her son who was lost in a fight.
Surrounded by his clothes and his many trophies that dwelled.
In that room her family comes to see her but they know she's not well.

You can follow her eyes staring at an empty shelf.
She's locked in her own world with her son's memories and a shell of her former self.
No more flowers once displayed beautifully in a vase.
In its place is an imprint of an empty space.

He was her first child born and her first child to die.
She loved all her children but he was her special child.
He told her he would one day give her a good life.
And for that, he became her pride.

With many social challenges that faced his teenaged years,
He was causing more heartache and less glory filling his mother's face with tears.
Knowing he needed to take a different course,
He told his mother he needed a way out and the Army was his source.

Hysterical, she pleaded with him not to leave that day.
He wanted to serve his country in a land far away.
She loved her country but she loved her son more.
This was his decision and he wanted to go.
She showed a mother's concern but she knew this was something he had to explore.

He wrote many letters of the war he was facing.
The things he had seen and the things he had done.
It was Vietnam.
He told her he believed this war would never be won.

One day her hope spring forth.
He was wounded and wrote to her he was coming home soon.
She was elated and put fresh flowers in his room.
The family threw a big party in his honor.
He arrived around noon.

It's been fours years since she eyed her son.
She had fours years of hugs and kisses to shower.
Their moment was now- she thought this would be their finest hour.
His embrace for his mother was intense.
The glare in his eyes she noticed was of suspense.

She cried tears of happiness.
He sobbed of four years of despair and sadness.
He walked with a limp and acted shy.
She didn't care. Her son was alive.
She wasn't about to question why.

After eating, he wanted to sleep and for now, leave his stories untold.
At night she would hear him screaming and ran to give him comfort.
This continued for many nights as his life unfold.

One day he was bored and told his mother tonight he's hanging with his friends.
His mother told him to be careful.
The town had changed-many things going on.
His once friends could be jealous enemies in the end.

With his buddies, he met one of his old sweethearts.
They kissed and embraced as if they had never been apart.
She was the one that got away.
They reminisced on the good times back in their heyday.

As they were talking, she didn't tell him she had been engaged to one of his old pals.
Who was still carrying a lingering flame for her and still considered her his gal.
Well, this old pal came in that bar that night with criminal intent.
He had received words that at the club the solider was back and with his girl.
He came with a gun, approached, and started to vent.
While their mothers at home, one of their sons was about to leave this world.

This solider of war who had returned home didn't want any trouble and told him so.
This is your woman and I shall just turn and go.
This old pal shot him three times.
As he was dying, his old pal said to him he was less than a dime.

His mother heard the news and death screams could be heard from midnight until…
She couldn't believe that her son had fought in that war, survived, and came home just to be killed.
No more flowers in that room are displayed.
In her mind, she hears the screams of former battles in that room he raved.
She hears the sounds as she places beautiful flowers on his grave.

In her chair, she sits feeling every stretch mark from his birth.
And the memory of the way her child was taken from this earth.
He was her first child out of her womb.
His dwelling has now become her tomb.
She feels lost and feels he can never be replaced anytime soon.
For now, she's content to sit in that dark room.