They Call Me

I have been called weak

Yet I have l marched all day weighing 100lbs more than my morning shower

I have been called a coward

Yet I have stared death in face and lived to walk away

I have been laughed at for not liking extreme heat or cold

Yet I have lived in a desert and survived sub-arctic temperatures for days and months

I have been called a murderer

Yet I have never fired my weapons in anger

I have been called a child killer

Yet I have bent the rules to help children

I have been called paranoid

Yet to me it is vigilance and a necessity for my survival at work

I have been called a liar

Yet my disabilities are not visible.

My spine is cracked and bent, my knees and feet are worn to the bone

My mind is trapped in the atrocities and horrors of the past.

I have been called husband and father

Yet I am never home, I barely know my children or spouse

I have been called lazy

Yet it is my pills and disabilities that limit my actions not my heart and soul

I have been called to action

Yet they do not call anymore

I have been called soldier, sailor and airmen

Yet now they call me Veteran

I have been called

Yet I do not know who I am

I have been called

Yet I do not know where I am

I have been called

Yet I cannot not answer

I have been called

Yet I am no longer here

I have been called