Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms

Monday, May 31 is Memorial Day here in the US.

I'm posting Dire Straits' haunting song and video from 1985 in honor of the dead and the injured (physically as well as mentally) men and women.

Note: just yesterday, the 1000th US soldier was listed as having been killed in Afghanistan.

I wrote this poem in 2004:

THE VALKYRIE

In a desert far from America
A bullet tears into young flesh
Skin caressed by his lover back home
He longs for her touch to take away the pain
He tastes his own blood and closes his eyes

In a desert far from America
Strong arms lifts a young body
The smell of her hair reminds him of home
She holds him gently in the saddle
As they ride past the dead and the wounded