One Man

News came this morning that Grandpa has passed away. It went fast and he lived a full life. HIs tired old body couldn't keep up anymore, after years of farming and fighting. I'm still processing.
In 2013 I sent this to him, right after he moved to the nursing home. He called me to say thanks, to tell me the stuff in the poem wasn't all true but it was nice. And I keep thinking about how I'm glad I bothered. Because those guys just didn't get thanked enough. I'll miss you Grandpa. I'm thankful for all that you've left behind.

One Man, One Soldier

He walks with courage

Though now with a cane, but once it was a gun

Now his steps are slow, but once he marched into war

Never seeing the man he would become

Maybe not understanding all he fought for.

He shuffles slowly down the hall

But once he ran full force onto the beaches of France

Screaming out over the mortars and cannon blasts.

Now that voice that carried commands

has become harder to hear. His eyes, once bright and soulful

now wear wisdom, wrinkled and woeful.

Now his steps are slower and he’s always being passed

by all the generations behind him

moving too fast

All those people who will never understand

the honor he deserves,

the indelible mark his actions made on the pages of time

in the stories they have never heard.

His tall frame now withers, hunching from age

And though that tired body has worked itself sore

The marks made that day have remained

The memories of war

The purple heart on a shelf in his closet

The friends who died on the shore

The family to which he came home

                To remind him what he fought for

He used to fight hard and long, but now he’s tired

And he already found his hill to die on

The man who stormed the beaches

Who limps with shrapnel in his side

Now walks with careful steps, leaning on his grandchildren

                who have always known his sacrifice

                Who listen to his tales of war and find

That ordinary men become heroes

 and courage shows itself in many ways

--sometimes in war stories and flashes of light

Sometimes in farming and strife

Sometimes in the faithful way you live your life.

This man, the soldier could teach them all that.

When they look into his eyes and listen

To one man’s journey in history, to one man’s scars

Teaching about bravery

Making his children who they are.

To Grandpa Alvin Rustebakke on the anniversary of D-Day, June 6^th, 2013