Tonight

Small Pain In My Chest

by Michael Mack

The soldier boy was sitting calmly underneath that tree. As I approached it, I could see him beckoning to me. The battle had been long and hard and lasted through the night And scores of figures on the ground lay still by morning's light. "I wonder if you'd help me, sir", he smiled as best he could. "A sip of water on this morn would surely do me good. We fought all day and fought all night with scarcely any rest - A sip of water for I have a small pain in my chest." As I looked at him, I could see the large stain on his shirt All reddish-brown from his warm blood mixed in with Asian dirt. "Not much", said he. "I count myself more lucky than the rest. They're all gone while I just have a small pain in my chest." "Must be fatigue", he weakly smiled. "I must be getting old. I see the sun is shining bright and yet I'm feeling cold. We climbed the hill, two hundred strong, but as we cleared the crest, The night exploded and I felt this small pain in my chest." "I looked around to get some aid - the only things I found Were big, deep craters in the earth - bodies on the ground. I kept on firing at them, sir. I tried to do my best, But finally sat down with this small pain in my chest." "I'm grateful, sir", he whispered, as I handed my canteen And smiled a smile that was, I think, the brightest that I've seen. "Seems silly that a man my size so full of vim and zest, Could find himself defeated by a small pain in his chest." "What would my wife be thinking of her man so strong and grown, If she could see me sitting here, too weak to stand alone? Could my mother have imagined, as she held me to her breast, That I'd be sitting HERE one day with this pain in my chest?" "Can it be getting dark so soon?" He winced up at the sun. "It's growing dim and I thought that the day had just begun. I think, before I travel on, I'll get a little rest .......... And, quietly, the boy died from that small pain in his chest. I don't recall what happened then. I think I must have cried; I put my arms around him and I pulled him to my side And, as I held him to me, I could feel our wounds were pressed The large one in my heart against the small one in his chest.

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Not In Her Storm

by Sauni

I see the clouds rolling in and oh how it looks like rain And it is always I fight for the welcome change When it rains it pours on this heart of mine So, I take the storms I feel to her each time. But I know she has lived under her own pouring rain Yet under her water her heart still doesn't change She can walk away from what hangs overhead And, not in her storm, are words left unsaid. Not in her storm have I ever felt alone Her storm ends, so I, may find my way home It's for me that she pushes away her own rain So, that I may find comfort in calling her name. She lives in this world for the sake of another's heart God, how she eases the miles when worlds apart And she never wanders when your world falls through Not ever in her storm would she do this to you. She has wings that I know not only I can see Cause only an angel could find strength to carry me It's the way that the eyes can surely view How her heart's written so clearly in what an angel can do. Not in her storm is her work ever done And even in her storm she hands me the sun When her world is dark - I always have light And now how I hold the new color of night. She takes then she gives to an unhappy face So that many can find an awesome place I have been able to love her more every day And with her hand in mine the clouds roll away. Not in any storm that I will ever live beneath Could ever change what I hold here inside of me Not in any of her storms have I lost my angels touch To that angel out there, I love her so much.