Hero; what does it mean?
What things has a hero seen?
He goes where he is told
when he is tired
and oh, so, cold -
when he’s hot and
red with dust -
when he can’t go on, yet
knows he must -
when he’s
sad and very far
from home -
and so alone -
What’s a hero?
Someone who completes
some extraordinary feat?
and someone else who
marches on
on his blistered feet -
misses his family and
fights the insects and the heat -
maybe there are degrees of
heroes -
like Hero Classes I and II -
which one are you?

I don’t know much about such things
but I know that if you take
a scared young man -
and send him away
to some foreign land -
to fire the weapons in his hand -
or repair the weapons or the planes -
to do the very best he knows -
and get no thank you for his pains -
He is as much a hero - as any others -
Can’t they see they’re all just brothers?

©Christina Sharik
July 5, 1998