Friday, January 23, 2015

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 6th, 2013

1 comment:

Tiffanie Lloyd said...

Beautiful. I'm sorry for your families loss, but rejoice in the life he lived, the legacy he leaves and the new world to come where war and woe are both gone.