"Our Champions" -- Honoring our Veterans

Our heroes serve by choice. Ours is an all volunteer service today. Our nation’s champions sacrifice and serve. And, when they bleed or die on far flung battlefields, we must raise them up and render

The champions of our nation’s heart
On eagle’s wings we will them rise
in all due honor we can render

Reluctantly, he lays a cheek
softly against his infant's downy pate
Her downy soft hair gently tickles
A forever kiss upon that cheek
He lays her in her mother's arms
And kisses the tears falling down
Tears falling down his wife’s face
He turns, strong shoulders squared
His champion’s heart resolute
Off he marches, answering country’s call
She watches him march up the ramp
Her fragile soul swelling with pride
while her fears fall like rain from her eyes
Her face radiating love for her champion

The champions of our nation’s heart
On eagle’s wings we will them rise
in all due honor we can render

The day he came home, she stood hours
She stood there in the pouring rain
Their little girl clinging tightly to her hand
Waiting to welcome daddy home again
Smoothly down the ramp he came
Flanked by patriots there to honor him
They honor the champion’s sacrifice
Honored in silence while the music played
Mother and child greeted their hero
Veiled in black… bound in sorrow
Tears falling… falling… pouring down
Tears unending and no kiss to dry them
Full measure, their tears anointed that cloth
On the champion’s coffin solemnly draped

The champions of our nation’s heart
On eagle’s wings we will them rise
in all due honor we can render

Losers and suckers says this POTUS
In a gut punch to the loyal grieving
Divided by his hand, our nation is falling

Today their tears are naught… wasted
The campion’s sacrifice is atrophied
POTUS deems the hero a sucker
A sucker for his loyalty to serve
A sucker for making no monetary gain
POTUS marks the champion a loser
A loser for choosing the hero’s sacrifice
A loser deserving no notice, no honor
Today their tears mean nothing at all
to the POTUS who sent him in harm’s way
POTUS, a fortunate son, wrapped in the red white and blue
Caressing and fondling the proud stars and stripes
That fortunate son, who chose never to serve
saved by bone spurs and by daddy’s money

Losers and suckers says this POTUS
In a gut punch to the loyal grieving
Divided by his hand, our nation is falling

Today, those who answer the clarion call
Those who return, left part of themselves
They shed their blood on distant battlefields
Today, their loyal service is made trivial
Champions cut down for our nation’s ideal
Our fallen souls who bled and gave their all
The sacrifice left on the field of battle
A fortunate son finds inconsequential
The falling tears shed in pride and sorrow
By mourning mothers, wives, and daughters
Their pride and sorrow, their tears and pain…
Meaningless sentiment to that fortunate son
That POTUS, fortunate son who scorns
our nation’s champions are suckers and losers

Losers and suckers says this POTUS

In a gut punch to the loyal grieving
Divided by his hand, our nation is falling

The champions of our nation’s heart
On eagle’s wings we will them rise
in all due honor we can render

06 September 2020, by D. Denise Dianaty

Photo by D. Denise Dianaty

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I agree wholeheartedly with this...it is bad enough to lose loved ones in battle...but then to have them called suckers and losers?
And to have him say "I like the ones who aren't captured"---
what is that?
Unbelievable is what it is.
Bravo for the courage to not only write this, but post it as well....i know we are such a divided nation
right now, and many would scoff or get their dander up at reading this...but the truth is the truth...
Yogi Berra once said..."I never said half of the things I said"---but when there are videos...
the proof is in the pudding...how can that be denied?
j.

[MomzillaNC]

Thanks so much, Jacob. And, I agree… when there are videos, ho can [the truth] be denied? I pray it will no longer be denied and people will make that clear with their votes.

As to the courage to write and share this… Well, I don't know how much courage is involved. I've swallowed too much pain already in my life and, for my own wellbeing, I will not just hold my tongue or swallow my pain. For me, I can't NOT lay out the bare, raw pain and outrage he heaps upon us all daily.

[Chris Shaw]

No greater sacrifice than dying in service for love of your country. Tears me apart when I see the photographs of our own serviceman lost in battle on anniversaries. What was said by your President this week was an insult to those who have died and the incredible pain and loss suffered by their families. Speechless when I read about it. You write with much passion about this dreadful slight Momzilla

Chris

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. When I saw the news about it, I thought of all those on both sides of my family who served, and some who didn't come home. It just makes me so angry and hurt for their sakes.

And, we learned today, that he had the flag removed from the White House that honors POWs and the MIA.

[barleygirl]

Things like this make me so angry, I can't even find words. Then everyone gets in an uproar over it, as if such scorn is only meant to keep "we the people" off balance & at each other's throats. That's why I am always stunned at how you can address such bullshit with such clarity & passion, but not in a rant. For me, this makes the core point, by inference, that we became a great country becuz people put the country before themselves . . . not just soldiers (altho it's good to stay laser-focused on this one point, as you do) but also the bulk of "we the people" put others & the country first. It's too ironic to conceive that greed & selfishness could "make America great again"! I think your way of writing is much deeper than most will appreciate. So many people get hung up on memes & slogans, they never stop to do the deep ponder, like your writing requires (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you so very much for your effusive praise of my meager words. Truly, to me these words seem paltry next to the pain and suffering Trump's words must cause every veteran family.

My mind went immediately to my grandfather who was volunteered for the Navy in WWII, then after he was rotated out of the Navy when the war ended, he turned around and joined the Army -- where he rose to become a decorated master carpenter and master sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers.

I remember all my great uncles who volunteered in WWII, not waiting to be drafted. I think of my uncles on both sides of my family who were drafted into the Marines and the Air Force during the Vietnam era. I think of my cousin with end-stage COPD who was told for years by the VA that her pain and struggle to breathe was anxiety induced asthma. I think of my career Navy dad, right now languishing with Stage 4 CKD and terrible veteran's healthcare. I think of my nephew who did six years in the Air Force before going on to work in IT all the way up to director for St. Jude's when he could be pulling down twice the income for the same enterprise sector job. I think of one of my other nephews, right now training for the Army, as an engineer at college.

I think of my cousins whose dad, so long ago, never came back from Vietnam. I think of another cousin whose son never came back from Iraq.

In the face of what those hateful words must mean to all of them… my words are paltry indeed.

[barleygirl]

Thank you for sharing all that. You feel a hundred times more deeply about everything than I do. I would be lethal if I gave it as much deep consideration as you do . . .

[MomzillaNC]

Well… but you must feel deeply. You're a writer. Poets, writers, artists… we are all creatives because we feel deeply. That's why what we do is a reflection of our times.

[...]

This blue part of this poem. Is for me quiet epic I don't even feel it's political more like celebration words and meaning . It's like music painted on canvas of up lifting emotions and colours. I really like that cause you bring political issue in very creative and new way.

Yes is comments are really disgrace . But I find more disturbing when man and women who served at USA army are deported cause they was caught when they smoked marijuana or when they drink drunk. Maybe another theme what you can explore . Anyway very emotive and solid poem. I really did enjoyed.

[MomzillaNC]

Thank you. Yes, I've seen the reports of immigrants serving – expecting citizenship that never materialized, then being deported when their service is up for minor offenses. It's despicable.