The Letter Poem by Mark Spencer

Sarah told her soldier she would write,
When Peyton's team shipped out to fight.
She knew before she married him,
That he would soon risk life and limb.

The day she wanted to avoid
Arrived when his unit deployed.
They sent him to Afghanistan,
Where he engaged the Taliban.

But she was lonesome on her own,
And didn't like being alone.
She needed someone in her bed,
To fill the lonely nights ahead.

She gave her heart to another,
Sarah loved the soldier's brother.
Though Peyton tried to correspond,
She wasn't sure how to respond.

She understood that before long,
He might suspect something was wrong.
She didn't call, and never wrote,
The truth got tangled in her throat.

And then one morning he was there,
She woke to find him in his chair.
Her lover sleeping by her side,
And there was nowhere she could hide.

Tears rolled down the soldier's face,
Tormented over this disgrace.
There lay his brother and his wife.
"Was it for this, I risked my life? "

"Each battle fought, I thought of you.
Those were the thought that got me through.
The hope that you'd be waiting here,
With open arms and joyful tears."

"But from my wife, I never heard,
She didn't write a single word.
No letters of encouragement,
No I love you's were ever sent."

"And so I've come to ask you why
Why you just left me there to die.
Abandoned to that harsh ordeal;
You don't know how that made me feel? "

"But all you thought about was you.
I look around and know it's true.
And in your haste to fill your need,
You planted a despairing seed."

She heard the doorbell ring below,
And asked her husband not to go.
She left him sitting in his chair,
Then quickly headed down the stairs.

A soldier waited at the door
With news that knocked her to the floor.
The letter told her Peyton died,
A fact she steadfastly denied.

She dropped the letter on the floor,
Then headed up the stairs once more.
"I can't accept what your note said!
That letter claims my husband's dead! "

"Take this message of doom and gloom,
And carry it up to my room.
You'll find my husband waiting there,
I left him sitting in his chair."

And there he was, still in his place,
The tears still rolling down his face.
She said: "You see! It isn't true,
This message I received from you! "

Confusion filled the soldier's eyes,
"I see no one." Was his reply.
"Ma'am there's nobody in that chair."
She screamed: "I see him sitting there! "

Then Peyton stood and wiped his tears.
Confirming Sarah's darkest fears.
He slowly faded from her sight,
Into the Lord's most holy light.

Now every year she fills a page,
A letter written like a sage,
Then places it on Peyton's grave,
To honor what her soldier gave.

If you've a soldier overseas,
Who's fighting for your liberties,
They're counting on the words you write,
It's what gives them the strength to fight.

So let this tale remind us all,
To never let our soldiers fall,
While there are words still left to say.
Those words could save a life one day.