Things I’ll Never Get To Say
I stared down at the blood on my hands. My fingers trembled--my whole body did.
This isn’t possible I thought.
This isn’t happening.
I clung to that thought, desperately. Maybe--maybe--if I believed hard enough, he would open his eyes again and then everything would be alright.
My stomach tightened as the events of the last few moments replayed in my mind.
His last words.
His last words.
I shut my eyes and prayed to feel empty inside. If I could feel empty then maybe--maybe--I wouldn’t be able to feel the pain anymore.
I love you--
That’s what he’d said. That’s what he’d said and then the light had went out of his eyes, and a breath escaped his lips and then there was silence.
He told me that and I broke.
I screamed.
I cried.
I cursed.
But never once--once--did I think to say what I should’ve.
Never once did I think to say the words that should’ve left my lips before his last breath left his.
I love you.
Oh, how I should’ve said it back.
That’s my curse, now, I suppose. I wander through life, a mist of grey in the world of brilliant colors. The thoughts always on my mind are these--
The words I’ll never get to say.
Confederate Heroes
Today we are burying a son of mine for the third time.
We laid him down in Virginia
Just north of the Carolines
He has a brother in Montgomery as the nation torn in two
And all of my sons would fight for their cause until they were knocked right out of their boots.
The oldest brother is in Shiloh beneath an old oak tree.
He died fighting hand in hand with Mr. General E. Lee.
Leaving lives and towns demolished
Just left as rubble along the way
Leaving my only three children scattered across the Southern states.
As strange as this may seem but when I look up at the clouds
I just know they are up their watching and I hope they know Im proud
So today we are burying my soldier son for the third and final time.
But I know they died protecting their cause; those Confederate heroes of mine.