Copyright: 2/18/96
The Soldier
Soldier of fortune, hired killer
Realizing certain demise beyond hope
Stalks his prey in the dark moonlight
Unhappy fortune with the nerves of steel.
A hit-man for the undisputed military
Gets his man no matter what happens
Encompassing wrong doing makes it right
Unloading all the weapons he can carry.
He's a loner, no family to speak of
Get's his kicks out of mass murder
Does anyone really understand him?
Does he come from hell or above?
In a time again, in a city before
Life goes on as the city slumbers
Dregs of humanity roaming the streets
The pumping heart beats blood to the core.
Men, women and children running scared
Scraping together ends meeting
Chaos and cunning rape the young
Fight the warrior if you dare.
The soldier is the watcher of men
Innocent and feeling lie face down
Redemption claims them and he wins
Living the life forever in doubtful sin.
Life as we know it comes to a halt
The soldier takes revenge quickly
The world, a ball of fire, burns bright
To the soldier hero we exalt.
His fortune seeks no one man
He thrives on life blood and meat
If he rules hand and foot past
For now he runs worldly doing what he can.
The soldier breaks for no known plea
The soldier destroys the land's evil
The soldier fights for our own rights
The soldier enters and locks the key.
Soldier fortune contempt's the young
Soldier fortune takes the only spirit
Soldier fortune breaks all the laws
Soldier fortune rules and he's done.
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label war. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Police Action
Copyright: 2/18/96
Police Action
A man comes home from a bloody war
Does not know his right from left
People spit on him, deranged no more
He fought for his country to the core
A man's life is at irresistibly at stake
Friends died at his feet, disbelief and scorn
Be-headings and floggings his friends he mourns.
A carefully planned police action men died
Derailing the government, for they lied
Government action, are they satisfied?
Vietnam rebels everywhere dysfunction of pride
Young, hopeful men wonder why and cry
His buddy blown to bits right by his side
Peace meets no man in war, look inside.
Villages left in ruins, children cry in the streets
A fate worse than death not to repeat
Fighting, why? No one knows, dead on his feet
Tired and wasted drug induced haze to meet
Wishing for the pain to be over, take a seat
He wanted to go home, be free and keep
His life from passing him by, protect the meek.
Agent orange and chemical warfare ends
All the life that was slowly on the mend
Losing all hope and his only friends
Life's only unforgiving existence he finds
People disregarding him, brainwashed mind
Unspeakable doings things he sees in the crime
Old wounds do not heal with the absence of time.
Does this man come home and repair his life?
Or can it go on for infinity, the political cookie bites
All the hurting, pain and sorrow, double-edged knife
Keeping a good man down and in strife
Does his thoughts resemble his turning might?
Or does he save face and hide in the daylight?
Was it a police action or just voices in the night?
Police Action
A man comes home from a bloody war
Does not know his right from left
People spit on him, deranged no more
He fought for his country to the core
A man's life is at irresistibly at stake
Friends died at his feet, disbelief and scorn
Be-headings and floggings his friends he mourns.
A carefully planned police action men died
Derailing the government, for they lied
Government action, are they satisfied?
Vietnam rebels everywhere dysfunction of pride
Young, hopeful men wonder why and cry
His buddy blown to bits right by his side
Peace meets no man in war, look inside.
Villages left in ruins, children cry in the streets
A fate worse than death not to repeat
Fighting, why? No one knows, dead on his feet
Tired and wasted drug induced haze to meet
Wishing for the pain to be over, take a seat
He wanted to go home, be free and keep
His life from passing him by, protect the meek.
Agent orange and chemical warfare ends
All the life that was slowly on the mend
Losing all hope and his only friends
Life's only unforgiving existence he finds
People disregarding him, brainwashed mind
Unspeakable doings things he sees in the crime
Old wounds do not heal with the absence of time.
Does this man come home and repair his life?
Or can it go on for infinity, the political cookie bites
All the hurting, pain and sorrow, double-edged knife
Keeping a good man down and in strife
Does his thoughts resemble his turning might?
Or does he save face and hide in the daylight?
Was it a police action or just voices in the night?
Labels:
poem,
poetry,
police action,
vietnam,
vietnam war,
war
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Innocence Plea
Copyright: 9/6/92
copyright 1992 Demented Thinking Productions
Innocence Plea
Live and die for your country, that's what they inbred in your brainwashed mind
War and peace are one in the same, their chains hold you, dotted line signed
Hurry up and wait to die, your ass in Uncle Sam's purgatorious sling
Hell knows no boundaries in world war conflict, madness is undoubtedly king.
Torpedoed by the Japanese sub, blood and life on the line
Ship sinking fast, the salt water gushes over the bow, knowing not what you will find
Eight-hundred eighty-three men washed into the roaring confines of sea
Three-hundred men and a lonely captain left to forget, innocence plea.
Militaristic gods got to put the blame on someone
They ruin one man's life for the hell of it, under the gun.
Shark infested waters breed the black death of unforgettable, lashing teeth
Bloodshed and hallucinogenic insanity for five days, swimming to mirages within the keep
Soldiers ripped in half, your best friend bobbing lifeless in the blink of an eye
How can the military prove innocence guilty, and stand behind all the lies.
General quart-martial proceedings for the captain goes as they had planned
The Hiroshima bomb delivered, all of the U.S. weapons now left unmanned
Busted rank and broken dreams fills his nightmares, no impending solution
Cut-weighed, browbeaten, and defeated by the imperialistic government, horrid conclusion.
Militaristic gods got to put the blame on someone
They ruin one man's life for the hell of it, under the gun.
Flashbacks and ghastly memories of this sea tragedy would not fade
The captain, in his agony, lived by circumstantial mean the military made
Growing harder each morning to face one more depressed hell-ridden day
Nothing left of a once heroic man, drowning in confusion, what could he do or say?
Bright and early the man walks out on his front porch and draws a breath of fresh air
Lays down on the steps with his military charms in hand, and puts the gun to his ear
Here he lies, hopeless and still since his suicide set him free
A man of honor and dignity, gropes for the justice of innocence plea.
copyright 1992 Demented Thinking Productions
Innocence Plea
Live and die for your country, that's what they inbred in your brainwashed mind
War and peace are one in the same, their chains hold you, dotted line signed
Hurry up and wait to die, your ass in Uncle Sam's purgatorious sling
Hell knows no boundaries in world war conflict, madness is undoubtedly king.
Torpedoed by the Japanese sub, blood and life on the line
Ship sinking fast, the salt water gushes over the bow, knowing not what you will find
Eight-hundred eighty-three men washed into the roaring confines of sea
Three-hundred men and a lonely captain left to forget, innocence plea.
Militaristic gods got to put the blame on someone
They ruin one man's life for the hell of it, under the gun.
Shark infested waters breed the black death of unforgettable, lashing teeth
Bloodshed and hallucinogenic insanity for five days, swimming to mirages within the keep
Soldiers ripped in half, your best friend bobbing lifeless in the blink of an eye
How can the military prove innocence guilty, and stand behind all the lies.
General quart-martial proceedings for the captain goes as they had planned
The Hiroshima bomb delivered, all of the U.S. weapons now left unmanned
Busted rank and broken dreams fills his nightmares, no impending solution
Cut-weighed, browbeaten, and defeated by the imperialistic government, horrid conclusion.
Militaristic gods got to put the blame on someone
They ruin one man's life for the hell of it, under the gun.
Flashbacks and ghastly memories of this sea tragedy would not fade
The captain, in his agony, lived by circumstantial mean the military made
Growing harder each morning to face one more depressed hell-ridden day
Nothing left of a once heroic man, drowning in confusion, what could he do or say?
Bright and early the man walks out on his front porch and draws a breath of fresh air
Lays down on the steps with his military charms in hand, and puts the gun to his ear
Here he lies, hopeless and still since his suicide set him free
A man of honor and dignity, gropes for the justice of innocence plea.
Labels:
military,
poem,
poetry,
sharks,
uss Indianapolis,
war,
world war ii,
wwii
Hearts Of Violence
Copyright: 2/14/96
Hearts of Violence
It's in the streets
It's in our world
It's in our minds
It's in our souls.
Redemption come once
Redemption comes not at all
It's in the past
It's in our goals.
It's inside our heads
It's inside our needs
It's inside our government
It's inside our hearts.
Renewal comes never
Renewal will not be
It's not our life
It's not our part.
It's unwelcome at home
It's unwelcome on streets
It's unwelcome in minds
It's unwelcome in souls.
Violence rules all
Violence will be the death
It's not our time
It's not our soul.
Hearts of Violence
It's in the streets
It's in our world
It's in our minds
It's in our souls.
Redemption come once
Redemption comes not at all
It's in the past
It's in our goals.
It's inside our heads
It's inside our needs
It's inside our government
It's inside our hearts.
Renewal comes never
Renewal will not be
It's not our life
It's not our part.
It's unwelcome at home
It's unwelcome on streets
It's unwelcome in minds
It's unwelcome in souls.
Violence rules all
Violence will be the death
It's not our time
It's not our soul.
Dead
Copyright:2/18/98
Dead
A soulless wonder
Floating through space
The time and place
Is far from home.
Looking back in certainty
Stumbling over rocks
Settling the blocks
And persevering.
Breaking out of jail - Don't need this hell
Keeping life afresh - What's this mess?
Searching our hearts - A brand new start
Hoping for our freedom - Ruling the kingdom.
Watched in a fishbowl
A glass house without stones
Becoming the drones
I will conquer.
Death and despairity
Depriving human contact
Our lives so hacked
And yet on the level.
Bringing the chaos home - Enslaving the dome
Unleashing the rotting corpses - Never realizing the source
Realizing the potential - Domination circumstantial
Holding the world captive - Paid to the highest bid.
Tell me, who decides our fate?
Are we in control of our own destiny?
Why can't we touch it, feel it, or see?
Is god dead?
Have we overstepped our bounds?
Are we able to regain our control?
Or is the world falling into a hole?
Is God dead?
Has he forsaken us?
Will he be taking us?
Has he been faking us?
Is God dead?
Dead
A soulless wonder
Floating through space
The time and place
Is far from home.
Looking back in certainty
Stumbling over rocks
Settling the blocks
And persevering.
Breaking out of jail - Don't need this hell
Keeping life afresh - What's this mess?
Searching our hearts - A brand new start
Hoping for our freedom - Ruling the kingdom.
Watched in a fishbowl
A glass house without stones
Becoming the drones
I will conquer.
Death and despairity
Depriving human contact
Our lives so hacked
And yet on the level.
Bringing the chaos home - Enslaving the dome
Unleashing the rotting corpses - Never realizing the source
Realizing the potential - Domination circumstantial
Holding the world captive - Paid to the highest bid.
Tell me, who decides our fate?
Are we in control of our own destiny?
Why can't we touch it, feel it, or see?
Is god dead?
Have we overstepped our bounds?
Are we able to regain our control?
Or is the world falling into a hole?
Is God dead?
Has he forsaken us?
Will he be taking us?
Has he been faking us?
Is God dead?
Breaking The Demon's Back
Copyright: 2/19/98
Breaking the Demon's Back
Watch the blood roll down your cheek
Saturation complete, A deadly blow
Bouncing back, Life in total control
Oneness with the status quo.
It simmers in the hearts of humans
Beating constantly, a life's vow
Getting real, the destination unknown
Look at the clock, time is now.
Sit and do nothing while hatred burns
Reading their faces a definite high
Killing the masses, watching them die
Bleeding them dead, it's now your turn.
(pre-chorus)
Is it truly real?
It's so surreal
Is it really fate?
It's just my hate.
A man watches the agony, despaired thoughts
Too many to count
Normal man with angered fuel burning doubt
Rules are sought.
Send him your money, dreams of meeting God
Fearsome and brutal rage fits
Saved with the trodden shit, everyone's unarmed
Beaten and kicked.
To his knees, cursed, swears no more
He raises it high, his heavy hand
The fucking rubbish, decorating the land
Strikes them down, settling the score.
(pre-chorus)
(chorus)
Where are the lies?
Where lies the truth?
Breaking the demon's back
What are their cries?
Do the cries seek the truth?
Breaking the demon's back
Tie 'em up
Throw 'em away
And enter them
Categorize them
And herd them
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's
Breaking the demon's
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's back.
Breaking the Demon's Back
Watch the blood roll down your cheek
Saturation complete, A deadly blow
Bouncing back, Life in total control
Oneness with the status quo.
It simmers in the hearts of humans
Beating constantly, a life's vow
Getting real, the destination unknown
Look at the clock, time is now.
Sit and do nothing while hatred burns
Reading their faces a definite high
Killing the masses, watching them die
Bleeding them dead, it's now your turn.
(pre-chorus)
Is it truly real?
It's so surreal
Is it really fate?
It's just my hate.
A man watches the agony, despaired thoughts
Too many to count
Normal man with angered fuel burning doubt
Rules are sought.
Send him your money, dreams of meeting God
Fearsome and brutal rage fits
Saved with the trodden shit, everyone's unarmed
Beaten and kicked.
To his knees, cursed, swears no more
He raises it high, his heavy hand
The fucking rubbish, decorating the land
Strikes them down, settling the score.
(pre-chorus)
(chorus)
Where are the lies?
Where lies the truth?
Breaking the demon's back
What are their cries?
Do the cries seek the truth?
Breaking the demon's back
Tie 'em up
Throw 'em away
And enter them
Categorize them
And herd them
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's
Breaking the demon's
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's back
Breaking the demon's back.
Behind Enemy Lines
Copyright 1996 by: Demented Thinking Productions
In Loving Memory Of: Ted M. Holdren
Based on true accounts of an 82nd Airborne Division Soldier during World War II
Behind Enemy Lines
An old man, wrought with aching pains and disease sat upon his roomy screened in porch watching the sun’s violet rays play upon the Saint John’s River in Jacksonville, Florida as it set slowly. The bright golden rays leaped and danced bringing to existence a fiery image of lives past and gone through an old man’s sharp memory. As he quietly pondered the long, but unforgotten past, water laps the river shore gently as a small speedboat cruises by displaying girls in bikinis and guys in shorts.
The man observes his own wrinkled hands carefully as if they would give some indication or comfort from his unbearable pain. Flexing them unconsciously he lets out a deep sigh and surveys the quaint porch with a detached fascination.
A gentle breeze blows the new autumn leaves peacefully, scraping the patio ground as the old man fixes his unblinking gaze on his eldest grand daughter, Becky. “A man,” he began almost startling the child out of her chair, “Goes through life wondering if he’s made the right choices or decisions. He grows up, goes to war, comes home, gets married, has three lovely children, watches his eldest depart to a better place in Heaven, gets sicker and then finally dies. Life is life, and death, well, death is, death, but it’s not so final as everyone likes to think. Do you understand?” Becky, surprised the man had said anything at all blinked and replied, “I think so.”
The elderly man shifted in his seat uncomfortably stealing one more glance at the uncanny sunset and finally says, “What I mean is, life is a complicated series of ups and downs and we all do our best to make it enjoyable, but no one lives forever.” Knowing exactly what he meant since her own mother passed away 4 years earlier, Becky turned her head not wanting her grandfather to see her cry. Viewing the spectacular sunset disappearing quietly behind the St. John’s Bridge a lonely tear streamed down her right cheek and plopped delicately to the ground beside her without a sound. Lines creviced deeply in the man’s weathered face as his brows frowned in dismay.
Deciding for the time being to drop the sordid subject of death, the man switched to another one quickly. “Did I ever tell you about the time we parachuted behind enemy lines in East Germany?” The little girl, knowing full good and well he had told her many times and memorizing the story by heart, but wanting deeply to hear it again surprisingly said, “No grandpa, I don’t think you told me that one.” The man smiled widely giving off a slight chuckle so much like him the little girl had to smile herself.
Finding a comfortable story position his ancient bones creaked and groaned as he began with a little more enthusiasm. “Well then. I’ll tell ya!” Clasping his big hands in front of his warm, untimely face he flickered a smile and narrated, “It was night time and as dark as the ace of spades. We were flying over West Germany and we were scheduled to drop at 22:30 hours. The natives were restless; as they say, and everyone fidgeted with their uniforms, jumping gear, boot laces, or eyeglasses whichever they had and whatever made them more comfortable. Several of us rechecked our parachutes and thought about the upcoming jump. Some prayed. I checked my parachute, ammunition, weapon, and prayed just to cover all basis. Once I was satisfied everything was ready to go I fumbled with my boot laces just like the rest of ‘em, saying my silent prayers for a safe return home.”
The man gave a little nervous chuckle and continued, “Now, there was this one fella in our outfit named Brady, I think, hell, I don’t know it could have been anything, it was a long time ago. Anyway, it was Brady’s first jump with our outfit. It was his first jump anywhere except probably out of bed, and he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. He must of checked his equipment, oh I’d say at least ten times and I think he said at least a good dozen prayers.”
The old man smiled broadly and laughed again remembering Brady’s nervousness. Clearing his throat he continued, “Time had come for the jump. Everyone lined up like robots and got ready to plunge into the uncertain European darkness that came consistent throughout the war. Everyone except Brady, that is. I don’t know if the man sensed his own fate to come or if he was just plain scared to death like the rest of us. Some people just seem to know what’s about to happen and they become scared and tense as a frog caught in the gig light somewhere deep in the swamp, but he jumped. So did we all.”
As he shifted his position to a more comfortable spot since nothing seemed comfortable to him anymore, the old man sighed aloud and whistled at nothing in particular, “Did you know I was in the 82nd Airborne Division, Becky?” Becky stared at the man blankly for a moment pondering this information carefully and finally answered with excitement, “Yes sir!” The old man smiled and nodded ruffling his grand daughter’s hair, “Yep! I jumped all over the world, but no jump would compare or compete with that one. Hell, I even jumped in Africa where the Desert Fox, Rummel, holed up with his troops, but still there was no comparison. Well, as I said, time had come to jump. Our Lieutenant gave the direct order to go and I’ll be damned if he didn’t actually fling poor Brady out the plane first. The Lieutenant was a damned fool and Brady was a good man. Anyway, just like the rest, I waited my turn for the big push out into the unknowing darkness and when it came it was as surprising as it was the first time the lieutenant shoved me out of the small door into the night air. The total shock of diving through midair more or less against your own free will as wind drove hard through your eardrums until your head felt like it was afire with the pain is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy and I never care to see it or do it again. Why people jump out of a perfectly good, flyable airplane for fun is beyond me.”
The old man fell silent casting his gaze across the black river at the now twinkling lights lining the opposite shore. The sun had long fallen away into blank darkness and the crickets sang and chirped a tune only the insects shared at night. Frogs rang their plea boldly with their own version of the cacophony as mosquitoes flew feverishly about landing on anything that could possibly satisfy their hunger. The man swatted a lone mosquito biting his lower forearm in a quick, unthinking motion before he spoke quietly again. “Yep. There’s a definite surge of adrenalin when a man plunges 20,000 feet out of a moving airplane.”
Ruffling Becky’s hair affectionately, the old man took up his story where he left off, “Well, as usual in the military, things did not go one hundred percent according to plan. The supplies we needed were dropped before we jumped and for all I know they could still be looking for them to this day. One thing’s for certain, we never saw hide nor hair of them. In a very odd way it makes a man wonder if they were dropped at all. It makes you think that some high and mighty pilot back on that bucket of nuts and bolts you just flung yourself from for God, country, and mankind is sitting there in his warm cockpit flying away in the night sky with a candid camera crew laughing hysterically watching us below search for something that obviously wasn’t there in the first place. That was the first to many, many clues as to how this particular jump was going to be. The second clue was young, handsome Brady. That kid had a wife and a 3-month-old daughter back home in Oregon. He showed everyone their picture and held it like a talisman day in and day out. Both were widowed that fatal night. I had the unfortunate displeasure of finding Brady’s broken body. You see, his landing wasn’t as easy as the rest of ours were. He found the one sturdy tree in the whole German countryside left still standing. It broke his fall and unfortunately his neck with it. He was tangled up in a twisted mess when I found him. It made me sick to my stomach staring into his dark, pleading eyes, knowing there was nothing I or anyone could do for him. I cut him down as quietly as possible and hid him well under some brush to cover our tracks. I closed his eyes, said a silent prayer for him and made a mental note to write Mrs. Brady when I got myself out of this mess. I’ll never erase his face from my memory as long as I live. He was so damned scared to jump, and he died just as scared. It was painless and quick for Brady, and that’s the only good thing about it, some were not that lucky. I still see his terrified face before I go to sleep at night and the first thing when I wake in the morning. I’ve often wondered over the years how Mrs. Brady held up through it all, but I guess like many other World War II widows, she went home to her mother and grieved her tragic loss. Brady was such a family man, always holding the picture of his wife and daughter before going to sleep. He’d look at them for what seemed like hours without moving. He loved them, God, and his country dearly. It was a real shame, a real shame.”
The fragile man shook his head sadly back and forth before he continued with a sigh, “Well, ole Brady wasn’t the only causality, there were many others throughout the time of the war. Some just like ‘em, some different. By the time we figured out the supplies had not landed any where nearby the Sergeant informed us we were just as lost as the supplies were. To make matters worse, we were four miles off course and four miles behind enemy lines in the heart of East Germany. Murphy’s law, I guess. If it can go wrong, it probably will. And everything about that night in particular went wrong. Along with venomous snakes and deadly insects we had to be on the lookout for armed and dangerous Nazi troops. Sometimes I think it was better that Brady met his fate before we found out our location. Death might have been better for him. I don’t think he would of made it through the long hike back to fight, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.”
“We took immediate cover in a thicket of bushes nearby completely equipped with thorns and brambles. I don’t know what kind of bushes they were, I didn’t ask. It was pitch black and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Shells and magazines ripped through the warm night air from all sides of us in the distance.”
“Oddly enough a man could hear various forms of wildlife with all the noise in the background voicing its pleas in the embezzlement of unwanted sounds in every direction. Some friendly. Some not so friendly. Crickets, insects of all kinds and things much larger I didn’t care to come into contact with stirred all about us. It could be downright deafening and would make your skin crawl if you had even the slightest idea what kind of animals peered out at you through the inky darkness watching and waiting. Sometimes, hell most of the time, we had had to sleep on bedrolls under the stars at night. One morning I awoke to an unwanted visitor in the bag with me. If someone hadn’t of told me to be careful when I got out of the bag in the morning I would of died long before this jump. I had to slowly and carefully peel back my bedroll to reveal poisonous snakes more than once the four years I was at war. Snakes take liberty at your feet in the bedroll because they seek warmth. It scared me to death. My heart felt like a sledgehammer beating on bare metal as I quickly flipped him 20 yards away with the barrel of my riffle. Before you put your boots on in the morning when we were in the desert you had to turn them upside down and shake out the scorpions or any other critters that stowed away in the night. Yep. That’s defiantly where my heart problems started I think.”
Becky, wide-eyed and astonished, swallowed hard. She couldn’t imagine waking up every morning shaking her bed and shoes out before moving. The ancient man grinned broadly portraying perfectly lined dentures and turned his head to the side so his only grand daughter would not see him giggling at her amazed look. “What kind of snake was it, grandpa?” Becky asked meekly. “Now,” the old man countered, “I don’t rightly know and I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask the slithery fella either. All I know is I didn’t like him curling up beside me uninvited.”
Waving his hand in the air diligently signifying enough questions and getting back to the business at hand, the man tweaked Becky’s nose and continued his story while the little girl laughed happily. “There was some confusion to begin with,” he began again, “The sarge looked like a man possessed trying to pinpoint our exact location. It’s not easy giving the obvious fact that there were no road signs telling us exactly where we were, but ole sarge was really good at finding out our exact location by examining the lay of the land. As a matter of fact, I believe he was one of the few men of the world that rarely got lost. I doubt if any woman sat in the passenger seat of his car asking him if they were lost or just taking some absurd detour. Ole sarge would of found his way out of Fort Knox on a wing and a prayer. I never saw him lost and I suppose the man had never been lost a day in his life. Well, it took ole sarge about ten minutes to pinpoint our location. He knew exactly where we were and he knew exactly how to go from there. Sarge informed us that we had to walk (or hike as he put it) west 4 miles to meet the drop spot. Everyone moaned silently including me. He instructed us not to talk and not to light any cigarettes.” The little girl looked puzzled, “But why, grandpa?”
The man stared out at the stars reflecting in the night sky and glanced at the moonlight dripping across the river in streams before answering quietly. His face and demeanor duplicated a serious tone frightening Becky slightly. “The Germans.” He said solemnly. Becky gazed at him for a long moment in total disbelief. “If a man,” her grandfather said seriously, “Lit a cigarette or talked it would give away the position of the entire company. The Germans would see the flicker of the lighter or hear a voice and fire everything they had in our general direction killing everyone.” Becky pondered this information carefully and looked back into her grandfather’s warm, sensitive face. Sighing, the old man continued, “We grabbed our gear, what we had that is, and began walking to the west. We were in the midst of a heavy forest and it became increasingly difficult to move through the underbrush silently. As tough as it was, we somehow made it without a hitch. As we stepped into a clearing all hell broke loose. Gunfire rained through the trees sprinkling chaos everywhere it landed and hit the man next to me directly in the heart killing him instantly. His name was, Sanderson, I believe. He fell dead right at my feet and I hardly had time to think. I hit the ground pulling the other man next to me down as quickly as I possibly could. No one moved, breathed or spoke for what seemed like hours. The problem was we didn’t know for sure if the whole freaking German army waited on the other side of the clearing or if it was one lonely man strayed from his outfit cold and alone. Silence bated the heavy night air and finally we could hear the sniper running away from us through the underbrush on the other side. We knew he was alone, but we also knew there would be more close by. We waited, oh; it must have been at least ten minutes before regrouping. We had to get out of there, and fast, so we took a hasty turn south and moved swiftly through the thick forest again. We knew we were getting closer to the front line and we were a little more tense than usual. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up at attention prickling my skin and I broke out into a cold sweat even though it felt like it was 20 degrees. I’ll tell ya, you haven’t seen or smelled fear until you’ve been put into a situation like that. All the other men around me knew it too. It’s the kind of fear you go to bed at night thinking of and you sleep with one eye open and one eye closed. You wake up in the morning stiff and felling as though you didn’t sleep a wink the night before. Yep, no fear like that fear. Yep.”
The old man paused glancing thoughtfully over the blackened water. Waves gently lapped the shore and a mullet answered with a splash of its own somewhere near the pine pier. Becky’s bright blue eyes cut through the darkness and she urged, “Go on, grandpa!” The old man looked at his grand daughter lovingly and asked, “Oh! You want me to finish the story, do you?” Becky laughed in spite of herself heartily and retorted quickly, “Of course I do!” The man ruffled Becky’s head of blonde hair vigorously and said, “Well, if you say so. Well, when ole serge deemed we had gone far enough south we turned west again and headed toward our original destination. We were supposed to hit a small German armory at the front line. I guess I can tell ya that, makes no difference now. Sarge made us fall out to rest while he calculated our distance. We had already gone 5 miles including the 2-mile detour south through the woods. Sarge told us we were just about there. We had to quickly hit the place and get out before the Germans had time to retaliate. We were supposed to meet a chopper at 05:30 hours in a clearing about a mile away from the armory. It would safely bring us back to an English Air Force base just outside of London. We rested for 15-20 minutes. It seemed to fly by. Things always seem that way when they are good, but when it’s bad it seems to take forever. We had roughly a mile to go, so we gathered our gear and got started again. After a good 45 minutes of twisting and turning through the thicket we snuck up on the armory and the sarge did his usual quick calculations. He figured there were four guards on foot with dogs and two in the tower. There was 15-20 of us so we had it covered. I was in charge of throwing the grenades into the armory blowing it up. Four others quietly took out the guards and their trusting companions while five others ran in and threw the grenades into the small armory. We had one fella who was a damn good sniper shot stationed in a tree just in case. He took out the two in the tower with speed and the accuracy of a rattlesnake. Everything blew up and the entire squad hauled buggy for cover in the woods. There must have been one German soldier caught inside the tin building because I heard the most unbelievably pathetic cry of pain, I think I’ve ever heard in my life. When a man experiences pain like that he always tends to sound like a wild animal caught in a trap rather than a man. It was a high-pitched, piercing scream and very final. It sent chills down my spine. We met up with our helicopter on time and flew safely to much more friendly ground. I’ll never forget that jump as long as I live. Yep. Not in a million years.” The old man yawned and stretched. Standing he turned to face Becky and advised, “It’s past your bed time little lady.” Becky blinked and mumbled, “I love you, grandpa. Your stories are so neat.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and scampered off to bed. He watched her go as if it was the last time and whispered, “I love you too. I only wish you knew really how much.”
The tired old man retired for the evening to his own bed and never regained consciousness the next morning. But, as Becky went through her life, she always did know just how much he really did love her.
In Loving Memory Of: Ted M. Holdren
Based on true accounts of an 82nd Airborne Division Soldier during World War II
Behind Enemy Lines
An old man, wrought with aching pains and disease sat upon his roomy screened in porch watching the sun’s violet rays play upon the Saint John’s River in Jacksonville, Florida as it set slowly. The bright golden rays leaped and danced bringing to existence a fiery image of lives past and gone through an old man’s sharp memory. As he quietly pondered the long, but unforgotten past, water laps the river shore gently as a small speedboat cruises by displaying girls in bikinis and guys in shorts.
The man observes his own wrinkled hands carefully as if they would give some indication or comfort from his unbearable pain. Flexing them unconsciously he lets out a deep sigh and surveys the quaint porch with a detached fascination.
A gentle breeze blows the new autumn leaves peacefully, scraping the patio ground as the old man fixes his unblinking gaze on his eldest grand daughter, Becky. “A man,” he began almost startling the child out of her chair, “Goes through life wondering if he’s made the right choices or decisions. He grows up, goes to war, comes home, gets married, has three lovely children, watches his eldest depart to a better place in Heaven, gets sicker and then finally dies. Life is life, and death, well, death is, death, but it’s not so final as everyone likes to think. Do you understand?” Becky, surprised the man had said anything at all blinked and replied, “I think so.”
The elderly man shifted in his seat uncomfortably stealing one more glance at the uncanny sunset and finally says, “What I mean is, life is a complicated series of ups and downs and we all do our best to make it enjoyable, but no one lives forever.” Knowing exactly what he meant since her own mother passed away 4 years earlier, Becky turned her head not wanting her grandfather to see her cry. Viewing the spectacular sunset disappearing quietly behind the St. John’s Bridge a lonely tear streamed down her right cheek and plopped delicately to the ground beside her without a sound. Lines creviced deeply in the man’s weathered face as his brows frowned in dismay.
Deciding for the time being to drop the sordid subject of death, the man switched to another one quickly. “Did I ever tell you about the time we parachuted behind enemy lines in East Germany?” The little girl, knowing full good and well he had told her many times and memorizing the story by heart, but wanting deeply to hear it again surprisingly said, “No grandpa, I don’t think you told me that one.” The man smiled widely giving off a slight chuckle so much like him the little girl had to smile herself.
Finding a comfortable story position his ancient bones creaked and groaned as he began with a little more enthusiasm. “Well then. I’ll tell ya!” Clasping his big hands in front of his warm, untimely face he flickered a smile and narrated, “It was night time and as dark as the ace of spades. We were flying over West Germany and we were scheduled to drop at 22:30 hours. The natives were restless; as they say, and everyone fidgeted with their uniforms, jumping gear, boot laces, or eyeglasses whichever they had and whatever made them more comfortable. Several of us rechecked our parachutes and thought about the upcoming jump. Some prayed. I checked my parachute, ammunition, weapon, and prayed just to cover all basis. Once I was satisfied everything was ready to go I fumbled with my boot laces just like the rest of ‘em, saying my silent prayers for a safe return home.”
The man gave a little nervous chuckle and continued, “Now, there was this one fella in our outfit named Brady, I think, hell, I don’t know it could have been anything, it was a long time ago. Anyway, it was Brady’s first jump with our outfit. It was his first jump anywhere except probably out of bed, and he was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. He must of checked his equipment, oh I’d say at least ten times and I think he said at least a good dozen prayers.”
The old man smiled broadly and laughed again remembering Brady’s nervousness. Clearing his throat he continued, “Time had come for the jump. Everyone lined up like robots and got ready to plunge into the uncertain European darkness that came consistent throughout the war. Everyone except Brady, that is. I don’t know if the man sensed his own fate to come or if he was just plain scared to death like the rest of us. Some people just seem to know what’s about to happen and they become scared and tense as a frog caught in the gig light somewhere deep in the swamp, but he jumped. So did we all.”
As he shifted his position to a more comfortable spot since nothing seemed comfortable to him anymore, the old man sighed aloud and whistled at nothing in particular, “Did you know I was in the 82nd Airborne Division, Becky?” Becky stared at the man blankly for a moment pondering this information carefully and finally answered with excitement, “Yes sir!” The old man smiled and nodded ruffling his grand daughter’s hair, “Yep! I jumped all over the world, but no jump would compare or compete with that one. Hell, I even jumped in Africa where the Desert Fox, Rummel, holed up with his troops, but still there was no comparison. Well, as I said, time had come to jump. Our Lieutenant gave the direct order to go and I’ll be damned if he didn’t actually fling poor Brady out the plane first. The Lieutenant was a damned fool and Brady was a good man. Anyway, just like the rest, I waited my turn for the big push out into the unknowing darkness and when it came it was as surprising as it was the first time the lieutenant shoved me out of the small door into the night air. The total shock of diving through midair more or less against your own free will as wind drove hard through your eardrums until your head felt like it was afire with the pain is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy and I never care to see it or do it again. Why people jump out of a perfectly good, flyable airplane for fun is beyond me.”
The old man fell silent casting his gaze across the black river at the now twinkling lights lining the opposite shore. The sun had long fallen away into blank darkness and the crickets sang and chirped a tune only the insects shared at night. Frogs rang their plea boldly with their own version of the cacophony as mosquitoes flew feverishly about landing on anything that could possibly satisfy their hunger. The man swatted a lone mosquito biting his lower forearm in a quick, unthinking motion before he spoke quietly again. “Yep. There’s a definite surge of adrenalin when a man plunges 20,000 feet out of a moving airplane.”
Ruffling Becky’s hair affectionately, the old man took up his story where he left off, “Well, as usual in the military, things did not go one hundred percent according to plan. The supplies we needed were dropped before we jumped and for all I know they could still be looking for them to this day. One thing’s for certain, we never saw hide nor hair of them. In a very odd way it makes a man wonder if they were dropped at all. It makes you think that some high and mighty pilot back on that bucket of nuts and bolts you just flung yourself from for God, country, and mankind is sitting there in his warm cockpit flying away in the night sky with a candid camera crew laughing hysterically watching us below search for something that obviously wasn’t there in the first place. That was the first to many, many clues as to how this particular jump was going to be. The second clue was young, handsome Brady. That kid had a wife and a 3-month-old daughter back home in Oregon. He showed everyone their picture and held it like a talisman day in and day out. Both were widowed that fatal night. I had the unfortunate displeasure of finding Brady’s broken body. You see, his landing wasn’t as easy as the rest of ours were. He found the one sturdy tree in the whole German countryside left still standing. It broke his fall and unfortunately his neck with it. He was tangled up in a twisted mess when I found him. It made me sick to my stomach staring into his dark, pleading eyes, knowing there was nothing I or anyone could do for him. I cut him down as quietly as possible and hid him well under some brush to cover our tracks. I closed his eyes, said a silent prayer for him and made a mental note to write Mrs. Brady when I got myself out of this mess. I’ll never erase his face from my memory as long as I live. He was so damned scared to jump, and he died just as scared. It was painless and quick for Brady, and that’s the only good thing about it, some were not that lucky. I still see his terrified face before I go to sleep at night and the first thing when I wake in the morning. I’ve often wondered over the years how Mrs. Brady held up through it all, but I guess like many other World War II widows, she went home to her mother and grieved her tragic loss. Brady was such a family man, always holding the picture of his wife and daughter before going to sleep. He’d look at them for what seemed like hours without moving. He loved them, God, and his country dearly. It was a real shame, a real shame.”
The fragile man shook his head sadly back and forth before he continued with a sigh, “Well, ole Brady wasn’t the only causality, there were many others throughout the time of the war. Some just like ‘em, some different. By the time we figured out the supplies had not landed any where nearby the Sergeant informed us we were just as lost as the supplies were. To make matters worse, we were four miles off course and four miles behind enemy lines in the heart of East Germany. Murphy’s law, I guess. If it can go wrong, it probably will. And everything about that night in particular went wrong. Along with venomous snakes and deadly insects we had to be on the lookout for armed and dangerous Nazi troops. Sometimes I think it was better that Brady met his fate before we found out our location. Death might have been better for him. I don’t think he would of made it through the long hike back to fight, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.”
“We took immediate cover in a thicket of bushes nearby completely equipped with thorns and brambles. I don’t know what kind of bushes they were, I didn’t ask. It was pitch black and you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. Shells and magazines ripped through the warm night air from all sides of us in the distance.”
“Oddly enough a man could hear various forms of wildlife with all the noise in the background voicing its pleas in the embezzlement of unwanted sounds in every direction. Some friendly. Some not so friendly. Crickets, insects of all kinds and things much larger I didn’t care to come into contact with stirred all about us. It could be downright deafening and would make your skin crawl if you had even the slightest idea what kind of animals peered out at you through the inky darkness watching and waiting. Sometimes, hell most of the time, we had had to sleep on bedrolls under the stars at night. One morning I awoke to an unwanted visitor in the bag with me. If someone hadn’t of told me to be careful when I got out of the bag in the morning I would of died long before this jump. I had to slowly and carefully peel back my bedroll to reveal poisonous snakes more than once the four years I was at war. Snakes take liberty at your feet in the bedroll because they seek warmth. It scared me to death. My heart felt like a sledgehammer beating on bare metal as I quickly flipped him 20 yards away with the barrel of my riffle. Before you put your boots on in the morning when we were in the desert you had to turn them upside down and shake out the scorpions or any other critters that stowed away in the night. Yep. That’s defiantly where my heart problems started I think.”
Becky, wide-eyed and astonished, swallowed hard. She couldn’t imagine waking up every morning shaking her bed and shoes out before moving. The ancient man grinned broadly portraying perfectly lined dentures and turned his head to the side so his only grand daughter would not see him giggling at her amazed look. “What kind of snake was it, grandpa?” Becky asked meekly. “Now,” the old man countered, “I don’t rightly know and I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask the slithery fella either. All I know is I didn’t like him curling up beside me uninvited.”
Waving his hand in the air diligently signifying enough questions and getting back to the business at hand, the man tweaked Becky’s nose and continued his story while the little girl laughed happily. “There was some confusion to begin with,” he began again, “The sarge looked like a man possessed trying to pinpoint our exact location. It’s not easy giving the obvious fact that there were no road signs telling us exactly where we were, but ole sarge was really good at finding out our exact location by examining the lay of the land. As a matter of fact, I believe he was one of the few men of the world that rarely got lost. I doubt if any woman sat in the passenger seat of his car asking him if they were lost or just taking some absurd detour. Ole sarge would of found his way out of Fort Knox on a wing and a prayer. I never saw him lost and I suppose the man had never been lost a day in his life. Well, it took ole sarge about ten minutes to pinpoint our location. He knew exactly where we were and he knew exactly how to go from there. Sarge informed us that we had to walk (or hike as he put it) west 4 miles to meet the drop spot. Everyone moaned silently including me. He instructed us not to talk and not to light any cigarettes.” The little girl looked puzzled, “But why, grandpa?”
The man stared out at the stars reflecting in the night sky and glanced at the moonlight dripping across the river in streams before answering quietly. His face and demeanor duplicated a serious tone frightening Becky slightly. “The Germans.” He said solemnly. Becky gazed at him for a long moment in total disbelief. “If a man,” her grandfather said seriously, “Lit a cigarette or talked it would give away the position of the entire company. The Germans would see the flicker of the lighter or hear a voice and fire everything they had in our general direction killing everyone.” Becky pondered this information carefully and looked back into her grandfather’s warm, sensitive face. Sighing, the old man continued, “We grabbed our gear, what we had that is, and began walking to the west. We were in the midst of a heavy forest and it became increasingly difficult to move through the underbrush silently. As tough as it was, we somehow made it without a hitch. As we stepped into a clearing all hell broke loose. Gunfire rained through the trees sprinkling chaos everywhere it landed and hit the man next to me directly in the heart killing him instantly. His name was, Sanderson, I believe. He fell dead right at my feet and I hardly had time to think. I hit the ground pulling the other man next to me down as quickly as I possibly could. No one moved, breathed or spoke for what seemed like hours. The problem was we didn’t know for sure if the whole freaking German army waited on the other side of the clearing or if it was one lonely man strayed from his outfit cold and alone. Silence bated the heavy night air and finally we could hear the sniper running away from us through the underbrush on the other side. We knew he was alone, but we also knew there would be more close by. We waited, oh; it must have been at least ten minutes before regrouping. We had to get out of there, and fast, so we took a hasty turn south and moved swiftly through the thick forest again. We knew we were getting closer to the front line and we were a little more tense than usual. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight up at attention prickling my skin and I broke out into a cold sweat even though it felt like it was 20 degrees. I’ll tell ya, you haven’t seen or smelled fear until you’ve been put into a situation like that. All the other men around me knew it too. It’s the kind of fear you go to bed at night thinking of and you sleep with one eye open and one eye closed. You wake up in the morning stiff and felling as though you didn’t sleep a wink the night before. Yep, no fear like that fear. Yep.”
The old man paused glancing thoughtfully over the blackened water. Waves gently lapped the shore and a mullet answered with a splash of its own somewhere near the pine pier. Becky’s bright blue eyes cut through the darkness and she urged, “Go on, grandpa!” The old man looked at his grand daughter lovingly and asked, “Oh! You want me to finish the story, do you?” Becky laughed in spite of herself heartily and retorted quickly, “Of course I do!” The man ruffled Becky’s head of blonde hair vigorously and said, “Well, if you say so. Well, when ole serge deemed we had gone far enough south we turned west again and headed toward our original destination. We were supposed to hit a small German armory at the front line. I guess I can tell ya that, makes no difference now. Sarge made us fall out to rest while he calculated our distance. We had already gone 5 miles including the 2-mile detour south through the woods. Sarge told us we were just about there. We had to quickly hit the place and get out before the Germans had time to retaliate. We were supposed to meet a chopper at 05:30 hours in a clearing about a mile away from the armory. It would safely bring us back to an English Air Force base just outside of London. We rested for 15-20 minutes. It seemed to fly by. Things always seem that way when they are good, but when it’s bad it seems to take forever. We had roughly a mile to go, so we gathered our gear and got started again. After a good 45 minutes of twisting and turning through the thicket we snuck up on the armory and the sarge did his usual quick calculations. He figured there were four guards on foot with dogs and two in the tower. There was 15-20 of us so we had it covered. I was in charge of throwing the grenades into the armory blowing it up. Four others quietly took out the guards and their trusting companions while five others ran in and threw the grenades into the small armory. We had one fella who was a damn good sniper shot stationed in a tree just in case. He took out the two in the tower with speed and the accuracy of a rattlesnake. Everything blew up and the entire squad hauled buggy for cover in the woods. There must have been one German soldier caught inside the tin building because I heard the most unbelievably pathetic cry of pain, I think I’ve ever heard in my life. When a man experiences pain like that he always tends to sound like a wild animal caught in a trap rather than a man. It was a high-pitched, piercing scream and very final. It sent chills down my spine. We met up with our helicopter on time and flew safely to much more friendly ground. I’ll never forget that jump as long as I live. Yep. Not in a million years.” The old man yawned and stretched. Standing he turned to face Becky and advised, “It’s past your bed time little lady.” Becky blinked and mumbled, “I love you, grandpa. Your stories are so neat.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek and scampered off to bed. He watched her go as if it was the last time and whispered, “I love you too. I only wish you knew really how much.”
The tired old man retired for the evening to his own bed and never regained consciousness the next morning. But, as Becky went through her life, she always did know just how much he really did love her.
Age Of Demise
Written: 1/19/91
copyright 1991 Demented Thinking Productions
Age of Demise
Thus begins the War of the Worlds, the Earth's final stand
No nuclear asylum or barriers, diabolical ruler in command
Armageddon is undeniably here, World War Three has begun
Radiation has taken life by force, the battle is not won.
Death toll in the billions, vast wasteland left behind
No vegetation to speak of, nothing left of mankind
Abandoned shelters in the desert, silos ripped to shreds
What's left behind of the globe, one total obliteration, all dead.
Radiant greenery once stood, now blinded by explosion
No one thinks twice about peace, total nuclear erosion
Earth and all life completely destroyed, no purple magic majesty
Absolute annihilation, how could existence end in such travesty?
(Chorus)
Wake up! And see the age of demise
For it is coming, the ending of our lives
Take notice! And see the age of demise
For it has come, everyone dies.
(Bridge)
What does it take to get along with your fellow man?
How can we reach neutrality with the present Presidential plan?
(repeat bridge)
(chorus)
Wake up! And see the age of demise
Living in a time of hatred and despise
Take notice! And see the age of demise
For it has come, everyone dies.
copyright 1991 Demented Thinking Productions
Age of Demise
Thus begins the War of the Worlds, the Earth's final stand
No nuclear asylum or barriers, diabolical ruler in command
Armageddon is undeniably here, World War Three has begun
Radiation has taken life by force, the battle is not won.
Death toll in the billions, vast wasteland left behind
No vegetation to speak of, nothing left of mankind
Abandoned shelters in the desert, silos ripped to shreds
What's left behind of the globe, one total obliteration, all dead.
Radiant greenery once stood, now blinded by explosion
No one thinks twice about peace, total nuclear erosion
Earth and all life completely destroyed, no purple magic majesty
Absolute annihilation, how could existence end in such travesty?
(Chorus)
Wake up! And see the age of demise
For it is coming, the ending of our lives
Take notice! And see the age of demise
For it has come, everyone dies.
(Bridge)
What does it take to get along with your fellow man?
How can we reach neutrality with the present Presidential plan?
(repeat bridge)
(chorus)
Wake up! And see the age of demise
Living in a time of hatred and despise
Take notice! And see the age of demise
For it has come, everyone dies.
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