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Veterans Day (poem)
By Daniel E. Rihn
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Years
Away from over there
I traveled through the decades,
Through the bottles, the kegs
Names and places I don't
Remember or never knew.
The faces and bodies,
They're not new
The war is never more
Than a few minutes away;
At a restaurant or bar,
I sit facing the door.
I always avoid
Where there's a crowd.
Being ever vigilant
When walking around.
Here is different,
The area near the wall.
Among the thousands
A calmness befalls.
The people, the faces,
I've never seen
Yet there were no strangers
Anywhere about me.
I looked out over the crowd;
I saw the fortunate,
The humble, the proud.
There is a camaraderie
That can only be shared
By those who were there.
For a while there is peace.
—Daniel E. Rihn
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