A 'Call' to 'The Wall'
Thomas Merton Brightman
All rights reserved

A long tale
One's getting to 'The Wall'
Probably begins before birth
Won't end with this or any other war

There are lots of walls in life
Non-vets likewise honor their 'Wall'
Each rife with interior strife
Honoring their own sacrificial stand-tall

To salve those in intimate offering
Often takes a special other
Also steeped in suffering
One way or another, like a brother

Friend asks
"Will you help me get to 'The Wall'?"
Have come so close yet without success
Painful task facing the pall

Veterans Day is a living task
For those still alive
Memorial Day easier to ask
Weeping those already under the grass

Have two tickets to this Veterans Day
VA wishes to honor medal-winners all
Been invited before, but could not find my way
To this honor-myself-and-others call

First, I must do The Wall
This is why I ask
Feels time to answer this 'Call'
Hope to get there with you at my back

Got above The Wall to the grassy knoll
Several times, just that a real test
Too much feeling the toll
Sat, looked, listened, left...

Vet and a brother
Made it that day
He with a little help from me
Up close finally got to see

The day came
For one who had stood particularly tall
To touch an etched name
A brother on The Wall

First with a friend
Then
Again
And...again

Following year took son
Next with son and grandson
Every year thereafter looking for
Others still stalled above The Wall

Vet keeps returning to this piece of land
Above The Wall
A brother willing to give a hand
Serving others who saw it all

Answering his
'Call' to 'The Wall'