Above me resonates a picture
Depicting those who understand,
A portal into the recent past
Of forgotten glimpses
But forever remembered
Peeling from the unrelenting sun
Attempting to erase memories
Fading into a normal existence
Fighting the faces that remain
Etched into a broken memory
That not even time could bend
A day when glory failed
And innocence was misplaced
But the picture remains
Life a knife in a back
Reminding me of the loss
Smiling faces full of life
Ignorant by their youth
An unforeseeable outcome
Not knowing the cost of enduring
And yet they sat there still
For a brief unfiltered moment
Unaware of the hand being dealt
The smiles that would fade
And ghosts that would claim
A reckoning already forgiven
Being victims of circumstance
But there is that picture
That most will ignore
And an explanation never given
A justification to never have
Iraq 2003 - 2004
