Veterans Day (poem)

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